Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona 500 | Sunday, February 16, 2025
FORD FINISHING RESULTS (UNOFFICIAL)
7th – Ryan Blaney
8th – Austin Cindric
10th – Chris Buescher
21st – Cole Custer
22nd – Corey LaJoie
25th – Cody Ware
26th – Brad Keselowski
27th – Todd Gilliland
28th – Noah Gragson
32nd – Ryan Preece
35th – Joey Logano
36th – Zane Smith
37th – Josh Berry
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 8th) – WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RESULT? “I’m clearly disappointed. I mean, you take the white and you’re in the lead. I wish we had a better chance to bring that home for everyone at Discount Tire and Team Penske and Ford Performance. It was just an exceptional effort all the way through Speedweeks. There’s definitely a lot to review there, trying to figure out when I need to actually be leading, so just frustrating to be that close.”
FORD AND TEAM PENSKE LED A LOT OF LAPS AND STAYED UP FRONT. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT YOUR SUPERSPEEDWAY PROGRAM? “It says the same things it’s said about our program the last year and a half to two years and it’s a shame we don’t have enough wins to show for it. I feel like there’s an opportunity to make the playoffs for all three of us tonight. I know it’s super early in the season, but it’s super critical and it’s a big race to try and win. To be that close it definitely stinks.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU PROVED TO THE FANS WITH BEING SO CLOSE TO WINNING AGAIN? “That I want to do it again, that’s for sure.”
WHAT ARE THE EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW? “Frustration. You’re taking the white as the leader. I felt like I executed all the restarts the right way and really that whole third stage. I didn’t get wrecked out of the lead this time, so that was cool, but it still doesn’t make it feel any better. Obviously, I don’t even know where we finished, but it was still a decent points weekend and an incredible showing by our team for the entirety of Speedweeks. It’s just a shame we couldn’t get this Discount Tire Ford Mustang in Victory Lane.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FINAL LAP? “I’m not sure. We had one wreck when I took the white and then Denny wanted to take his run right away and I still got a good shot from the 01 and whoever was pushing Denny clearly wrecked him. There was just a ton of momentum with the field getting broken up. I didn’t really know what point of the lap I needed to actually be the leader, it’s just frustrating to be that close.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 32nd) –“We had a really good car. Honestly, I don’t even know what happened in front of me. I haven’t seen the replay. I was in line, pushing, and when you get down to the end of these races, we are all just really aggressive because you have to be aggressive. It is just the position we are in. We had a really fast BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang, and it is just frustrating when you can’t do anything with it.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Peak Ford Mustang Dark Horse – (Finished 7th)
“Honestly, we did a good job fixing it after we got turned on the backstretch off of Turn 2 there and fixed it the best they could. We rode around and missed the first big wreck and kind of went racing the second one, and I went to the bottom, and kind of got to the apron and was able to miss a lot of that junk and wound up seventh. It was a good recovery. We did a really good job today just got hit in the right rear there and spun around and hurt us a little bit. It was a good finish at least.”
YOU HAD SPEED ALL DAY. IF IT WASN’T FOR THE CHAOS AT THE END DO YOU FEEL YOU AND AUSTIN (CINDRIC) HAD A CHANCE AT THIS THING? “Yeah, I thought Austin and I were in a good position. We had control of the race for awhile. The middle kind of came a little bit but I felt like we were still going to have a shot. It was just people pushing hard at the end of this thing and sometimes it just doesn’t work. Unfortunately we were part of the wreck but fortunate that we didn’t have night-ending damage. Austin and I did a good job. I thought we timed the strategy perfect of he and I being out front together the last run of the race and just lost a couple of us there.”
COREY LAJOIE, No. 01 Take 5 Oil Change/DuraMax Ford Mustang Dark Horse – (Finished 22nd)
“Here, for what we are trying to do, it doesn’t matter if you don’t win. Certainly, there is a lot of money involved from potentially finishing third to 22nd or wherever we finished. Nonetheless, I think we had a great showing this week, making it into the Duels and bringing Take Five and Duramax to the front at Daytona with 10 laps to go was a pretty special experience. I just hate that we couldn’t finish where we should have.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse – (Finished 10th)
“It was just a race that didn’t play out like we needed it to. We practiced a lot of things as a group and got really efficient at it in practice. We had cautions at all the times to where we didn’t have a single green flag stop, which we were prepared for. The cars handled great. We went into a night race with the rain delay. Everybody’s handling was just fine. Everything just kind of piled on top of us, but we had a ton of potential in this race if it would have started the right time and had played out a little bit different. You can’t control that, but we had a ton of potential in the day with our Fastenal Mustang and we didn’t really get to realize it.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 35th) – “From my perspective, I felt like to win the race I had to get to the second row in my line there. I was in third and needed to get to second. I saw the opportunity to drop down and get underneath the [number] 47 and have the [number] 4, another Ford, behind me. Then the 47 threw a late block there. I checked up for it and it looked like he was going to go back up and grab the top lane so I went back in to try and close the gap again but he kept coming down. I am checking up but at that point the checkup has already happened behind me and everybody is all over each other. I can’t get out of it and then we made contact. It is unfortunate. We had a good Shell Pennzoil Mustang. We had a good car but just couldn’t get it done.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 21st) – “Everybody was just pushing hard and side drafting hard. Everybody is going for it. This is the biggest race of our lives here in Daytona. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. I had a huge run on the 11. I wish I waited one more corner, but it was such a big run that I just felt like I had to take it. The 19 went with the 11 and then we were kind of hung out and it just didn’t work out there at the end, but I can’t say enough about our team. To have a shot at the win there it definitely says a lot about our team with how hard they had to work on this car fixing it from the Duels. We’ll move on to Atlanta and see what we can do.”
YOU WERE PUSHING CINDRIC ON THE OUTSIDE, BUT WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? “There was a lot going on. There was a lot of pushing and a lot of shoving. I wish we could have stayed hooked together with Austin, but just with how it worked out with people blocking and everything, it didn’t work out. Everybody was just going for it.”
CODY WARE, No. 51 Parts Plus/Jacob Construction Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Finished 25th) – “We did everything we could. We slipped our way through it. We were on the bottom and making our way through and just got clipped at the last second. Super frustrating because the RWR cars were fast. I was just hanging back and playing my normal strategy. The 01 also showed pace and was running up front all day. To have two top-fives taken away from us on the last lap is pretty frustrating. Definitely been a long week between issues in qualifying, getting wrecked it the Duels and then wrecking out again today. This is one to reset and move on to Atlanta next weekend. Thankful we had fast Ford Performance Ford Mustang Dark Horses on the race track and know that we will have two more fast cars at Atlanta next weekend.”
