TEXAS
Friday, May 2 — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 8 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, May 3 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 2 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, May 4 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Ford heads to Texas Motor Speedway with added momentum after Austin Cindric’s thrilling NASCAR Cup Series victory last weekend in Talladega. Ford has 15 all-time Cup wins at the Fort Worth track and 32 overall in the three premier NASCAR series combined, which includes a sweep in its inaugural 1997 season.
CINDRIC CLINCHES PLAYOFF BERTH
Mustang driver Austin Cindric led a race-high 59 laps in the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished eighth, but on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway he went to Victory Lane while leading only seven. His thrilling side-by-side battle with fellow Ford driver Ryan Preece ended in a photo finish and a margin of victory of .022 seconds. The win, which was the third of his Cup career and 200th for Roush Yates Engines, clinched a spot in the playoffs for the second straight year and third time overall. Cindric has led at least one lap in half of the 10 races this season, and at least 45 or more in three of those.
MR. SMITH GOES TO TEXAS
Ford’s Zane Smith came away with the first pole of his NASCAR Cup Series career last weekend when he posted the fastest speed at Talladega Superspeedway, and then led five laps in the race before finishing 19th. This week, he’ll make his third career Cup start at Texas Motor Speedway and second with Front Row Motorsports. In 2023, he finished 24th as that marked one of eight series events he participated in with FRM while also competing full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In six NCTS starts at Texas, Smith registered three top 10 finishes with his best effort being third in 2020.
NINE ALL-TIME FORD CUP WINNERS
Ford has 15 NASCAR Cup Series victories at Texas Motor Speedway with nine drivers having at least one. Kevin Harvick ran off a streak of three straight playoff victories at the 1.5-mile track from 2017-19 and is tied with Carl Edwards, who had three career Ford wins including a season sweep in 2008. Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth have two apiece while Joey Logano, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler have one each.
ROUSH SUCCESS
Jack Roush has had his share of victories at Texas Motor Speedway from the very beginning as Mark Martin (NXS) and Jeff Burton (Cup) swept the opening weekend in 1997. Overall, Roush has won nine times in both the Cup and Xfinity Series while Greg Biffle registered a NASCAR Craftsman TrucK Series win in 2000. Those nine Cup wins are tied for third on the all-time Roush list with Dover Motor Speedway. Only Michigan International Speedway (14) and Bristol Motor Speedway (12) have been more successful.
JOEY LOGANO: IS THERE SOMETHING YOU CAN LEARN FROM TEXAS THAT WILL HELP WITH THE TWO OTHER MILE AND A HALVES THAT FOLLOW? “Texas is a little bit of a unique facility, but pretty smooth. Kansas is pretty smooth as well, so there’s a little bit that you can take over from one to the other. It’s kind of nice to have them backed up because then you can make a gain from one to the other and you can work on your setup because that’s what we’ve got these days. It’s not like we’re gonna go out there and practice like we used to and sling springs at it, so you may try something at Texas and if it doesn’t work, you’re gonna try something completely different at Kansas.”
RYAN PREECE: CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHY TEXAS IS SO TREACHEROUS? “I think when they did turns one and two they said we’re gonna do the complete opposite in turns three and four. It’s challenging. I think over time the groove has widened out. I don’t know if that’s a product of when they laid down the PJ1 a few years back, but the outside has certainly come in. Three and four are just one of those corners where you need to be comfortable and flat out and be able to move around. It’s tough.”
JOSH BERRY: WHY IS TEXAS SO TREACHEROUS? “It’s definitely a unique layout. I think that each end of the track is so drastically different that part of the problem is it’s very hard to get your car really balanced on both ends. Turn one is much slower with less banking, and getting off turn two is really important because it sets you up to carry all that momentum through three and four. To be good in one and two, you’ll have your hands full in three and four just with the speed. The sketchiness of it is going through three nearly wide-open. That makes it a handful.”
LOGANO’S LAST LAP PASS
Joey Logano’s first Cup win at TMS came in 2014 in a race that was delayed until Monday because of rain. Logano dominated much of the second half, but a caution with two laps to go forced a green-white-checker finish. He started third on the restart after the leaders stopped on pit road and was able to get past Jeff Gordon on the final lap to claim victory. Logano led 108 of the final 116 laps to claim the first of five wins that season.
A TEXAS TWO-FIRST
A couple of firsts happened on April 6, 1997 as Texas Motor Speedway hosted its inaugural NASCAR Cup Series event and Jeff Burton took his first checkered flag. Burton, led by crew chief Buddy Parrott, passed Todd Bodine with 58 laps remaining and beat fellow Ford driver Dale Jarrett to the finish line by four seconds. The race was slowed by 10 cautions, which included a multi-car accident in the first turn of the first lap. Burton went on to win 21 career series races with 17 of those coming in a Thunderbird or Taurus.
MAYER GOING FOR TWO STRAIGHT
Sam Mayer heads to Texas Motor Speedway this weekend in search of his second straight NASCAR Xfinity Series victory after he won last year’s event in a dramatic photo finish. Mayer ran Sieg down at the white flag and briefly passed him on the backstretch, but the two drivers ended up banging door-to-door off turn four before crossing the finish line side-by-side. Mayer ended up winning by .002 seconds and was the first of three wins for him last year. Mayer comes into this weekend as the highest-ranked Ford driver in the standings as he sits third while Haas Factory teammate Sheldon Creed is 10th.
FOUR FAST FORDS IN TOP 10
Chandler Smith leads a group of four Ford drivers who come into this weekend’s action at Texas Motor Speedway in the top 10 of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings. Smith, who won his first race with Ford three weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, is second overall while Front Row Motorsports teammate Layne Riggs is three spots back in fifth. The ThorSport Racing duo of defending champion Ty Majeski (sixth) and Jake Garcia (seventh) round out the group.
FORD’S NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS
AT TEXAS
1997 – Jeff Burton
1998 – Mark Martin
2001 – Dale Jarrett
2002 – Matt Kenseth
2004 – Elliott Sadler
2005 – Greg Biffle (1) and Carl Edwards (2)
2008 – Carl Edwards (Sweep)
2011 – Matt Kenseth (1)
2012 – Greg Biffle (1)
2014 – Joey Logano (1)
2017 – Kevin Harvick (2)
2018 – Kevin Harvick (2)
2019 – Kevin Harvick (2)
FORD’S NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS
AT TEXAS
1997 – Mark Martin
1999 – Mark Martin
2000 – Mark Martin
2004 – Matt Kenseth
2007 – Matt Kenseth
2010 – Carl Edwards (2)
2011 – Carl Edwards (1) and Trevor Bayne (2)
2012 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (1)
2013 – Brad Keselowski (2)
2015 – Brad Keselowski (2)
2018 – Ryan Blaney (1) and Cole Custer (2)
2020 – Austin Cindric (1)
FORD’S NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT TEXAS
1997 – Kenny Irwin Jr.
1998 – Tony Raines
2000 – Greg Biffle (1)
