Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Jack Link’s 500
Sunday, April 27, 2025
AUSTIN CINDRIC PUTS FORD MUSTANG IN TALLADEGA VICTORY LANE
- Austin Cindric drove to his first victory of 2025 today and third of his career..
- It also marks Team Penske’s 102nd series win with Ford.
- This is also the 200th NASCAR Cup Series points win for Roush Yates Engines since the company was formed in 2004.
- Overall, 25 different drivers have won at least one NASCAR Cup Series race with a Roush Yates engine.
- Joey Logano has won the most races (34) while Brad Keselowski is second (27).
- Today’s win is Ford’s 743rd all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition
FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st – Austin Cindric
2nd – Ryan Preece
5th – Joey Logano
6th – Noah Gragson
15th – Cole Custer
18th – Todd Gilliland
21st – Zane Smith
28th – Josh Berry
33rd – Cody Ware
36th – Chris Buescher
38th – Brad Keselowski
39th – Ryan Blaney
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN AS A TEAM LIKE THIS? “It takes everything and we’ve had it so many races here and you’ve got to have a little bit more. I’m just so proud of everybody on this race team. Team Penske, the entire shop deserves wins at these racetracks with how fast our race cars are and I’m just so proud to be able to win for John Menard and the Menards team – to get this yellow car in Victory Lane and get in the playoffs.”
WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND ON THOSE FINAL LAPS? “You’re waiting for it to go wrong, but you’ve got to stay in the zone. There are so many times at the end I was just focused on the feedback Doug Campbell was giving me and what I knew about our car and maybe other cars I observed throughout the field today, so just an absolutely fantastic job by everybody involved.”
DESCRIBE THE EMOTION FOR TEAM PENSKE TODAY? “We’re gonna celebrate this one at the shop. The guys really deserve it and I couldn’t be happier.”
YOU RAN IT OUT OF GAS GOING AROUND CELEBRATING? “I figured I’d do the full lap. Sometimes guys do the half lap, but you never know when you’re gonna win these races again. I’m not saying we can’t do it, but you’ve got to appreciate it and have a moment by myself there with the race car and prove how good we got that cycle down. It was really cool.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Rural King Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We were in the third row on the outside and was trying to keep Cindric out front and keep the outside lane that I was in from getting there and then the 60 was able to pull up and we had two Fords out front. I’m happy for Ford and Penske for the win, but this is a good reset and good points today after the first 10 races of the season. We haven’t had the results we want, so it’s a good reset after the off weekend and a good way to start off the next part of the season.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU GOT BOXED IN AT THE END. “Yeah, it’s all about the cycle and then once it got two-by-two there you’re kind of there just watching it all happen in front of you and you really don’t play much of a part. You just hope that your lane clears enough to where you can possibly make a move, but there are no lanes to make a move there. We just got beat on the cycle there. I’m not even really sure exactly how yet. I have to go back and look at it, but, overall, it was a solid day for the Shell/Pennzoil Ford. We almost had a stage win and a top five, so I can’t be too frustrated with that I guess.”
YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN SO CLOSE. HOW NICE TO SEE A TEAMMATE IN VICTORY LANE? “It’s about time one of us wins these things. You think about the amount of laps led by Team Penske and Ford in general and we just haven’t been able to close, so to see a couple Fords there on the front row duking it out, I wish one of them was me in a selfish way, but it’s also good to see those guys running up there and being able to click one off for Penske.”
CODY WARE, No. 51 Arby’s/AC Barbeque Sauce Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I think that today we showed from green flag to checkered flag that we were a race-winning contender today. I’m really proud of the pit crew and the road crew and everybody back at the shop for building a super fast Arby’s Barbeque Ford Mustang. I’m really dejected with how the day ended. I sped leaving pit road, but we also ran out of fuel, too, so our fate was kind of sealed after that last pit stop no matter what. I’ll work on the things I need to work on and I know the team is going to work on the things they need to work on and we just need to move forward knowing that we can do this. We just have to keep digging.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Kroger/Celsius Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We did all we could. I felt like we executed Stage Three exactly like we needed to. We came out in the front of our group and worked our way through that traffic. We had the opportunity to get to the top lane and then from there it was just managing those cars behind us and not giving up what we gained. I’m really proud of everybody at RFK for this race car. I’m just really super appreciative from Jack, Brad, the Fenway Group for this opportunity. Honestly, without Kroger and BAM and Celsius and a lot of the other partners today, I’d probably be back in Connecticut. I’m really excited about the rest of this year. It’s a great day, but I wanted to win.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was just a stack of guys trying to come to pit road as fast as they could and we were kind of the ham in the sandwich that got squeezed. I waved down the backstretch to let everybody know I was gonna pit and I came off of four and everybody was so tight behind me that I didn’t even have a chance to turn left. I hate that it ruined not just our day, but several other people’s day. I don’t think I could do anything different.”
WHAT HAPPENED? “I just got hit from behind. I didn’t really have a chance to do anything and got turned and wrecked our race car and a few others. That really stinks but that’s the way it’s been.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We just broke too many pieces in the right-rear. That took all the damage. The right-rear wheel and it broke everything. We couldn’t fix it, unfortunately, but I don’t really know. I kind of saw a little bit of a replay. It looked like a group of guys trying to get to pit road and maybe some guys not knowing that they were coming to pit road and not giving them any room. I saw the 8 and 6 kind of get hooked together and they were going up the track, so I kind of picked the bottom and tried to get out of there and I think they clipped someone outside of them and the 6 came back into me and I got clipped in the right-rear. Oh gosh, man, another DNF. It just sucks. Just when we were kind of getting our momentum and didn’t even get to race today. We’ll just move on to Texas.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Travel Centers of America Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Everything was great out the windshield. I have no clue what happened yet. I imagine it was a bad push. That’s all it can really be. I know we’re all going for it there at the end. We’re in a great spot with our Travel Centers Ford Mustang. We had our teammate behind us. We had fuel to go wide-open and not worry about it all the way to the end of that stage and it certainly didn’t work out. I don’t know what happened at this point. I’m assuming we were just two-wide. I have no clue to really say, but we had worked really well with Preece early on in the race and had been really smart about how we linked up and got to pushing and it worked really well for us. We were right there off the corner, just kind of backing up to him to receive that first big push down the back and just seen the 20 come across the nose. Until I dive into it, I don’t know anything else yet.”
