KANSAS 1
Saturday, May 10 — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, May 11 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (FS1)
Ford heads to Kansas Speedway on the heels of its second straight NASCAR Cup Series victory and while 12 Mustang Dark Horses will be center stage in America’s Heartland on Sunday, it won’t be the only place. This weekend, there will be 56 Mustangs competing in various series around the world, including IMSA, Formula Drift and the Repco Supercars Championship in Australia.
FORD GOING FOR THREE IN A ROW
Ford goes into this weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway having won back-to-back NASCAR Cup Series races with Austin Cindric (Talladega) and Joey Logano (Texas). The last time Ford won at least three consecutive races was a year ago when Harrison Burton took the checkered flag at Daytona International Speedway, sparking a four-race streak and claiming the 100th all-time win for the Wood Brothers. Overall, Ford has won nine Cup races at Kansas with Logano and Brad Keselowski combining to win four.
LOGANO MOVES UP FORD WIN LIST
Joey Logano’s win on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway was his 37th career victory and 35th with Ford, moving him into a tie with Mark Martin for third-place on the all-time Ford list. That leaves only Bill Elliott (40) and Ned Jarrett (43) ahead of him. In addition to clinching a playoff spot, Logano recorded a win for the 14th straight season and continued a streak that has seen nine different drivers go to Victory Lane in the last nine TMS Cup events.
ALL-TIME FORD CUP WIN LIST
Ned Jarrett – 43
Bill Elliott – 40
Joey Logano – 35
Mark Martin – 35
Dale Jarrett – 30
David Pearson – 29
Brad Keselowski – 27
Fred Lorenzen – 26
Junior Johnson – 26
Kevin Harvick – 25
JOEY LOGANO: “At Kansas, you need a fast car, that is for sure. A car that can move around the race track is a big part of it. I like Kansas. It is a good place and probably one of the best tracks we have with this car. There are a lot of options to move around and you are in the gas a lot. Getting your car to rotate on throttle is the key there.”
RYAN BLANEY: “Kansas is a fast mile-and-a-half. I always talk about commitment level, and your commitment level has to be really high there, especially in qualifying. I think the beauty of it is that you can run all these different lanes — bottom, middle, top. For a while, it was top dominant, but that has changed a bit over the years. Last year I felt like the bottom could run a little bit. It is a place where you know you are going to be standing on the gas when you get there, and I think that is what drivers prepare for mentally. You have to be ready to hang on. It puts on a good show, and hopefully we can get a win.”
JOSH BERRY: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE VERSATILE AT KANSAS? “I think it just really boils down to the Next Gen era of racing and it’s so hard to follow each other. If your car is really good on the top, that’s great, but if you can’t move down to get some clean air, you’re not gonna be able to pass. So, it’s just important to be good in multiple lanes because that way you can navigate racing through the field, but even if you’re the leader, you need to be able to navigate and pass lap traffic and make good lap time. I think that’s why that track seems to promote such good racing because it has multiple lanes and allows us options to have side-by-side battles.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC: “Whenever you are on the gas a lot, I think these Fords perform really well, and Kansas is one of those places. We have a lot of learnings from intermediates in the early season, and a lot of important races coming up. Kansas, you are definitely on the gas, and I like that you can move around there. Both of those bode well for our Ford group. I am looking forward to it.”
KEEP AN EYE ON KES
Brad Keselowski comes into this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race looking for his first win of the season, but Kansas Speedway could provide the proper medicine for a trip to Victory Lane. In 30 career starts on the 1.5-mile track, Keselowski has a pair of wins and 14 top-10’s for an average finish of 12.5. The only tracks currently on the circuit where he has better numbers are Loudon (10.5), Pocono (10.8), Darlington and Michigan (12.0) and Richmond (12.1).
LOGANO GOING FOR FOURTH KANSAS VICTORY
Joey Logano will be looking for his fourth career win at Kansas Speedway this weekend, which would tie his personal best at any single track. Logano currently has four career wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway. He won for the first time at Kansas in 2014, and then did it again one year later in the playoffs. That contributed to a sweep of the round as he took the checkered flag the following week at Talladega. His last Kansas win came in 2020 when he led the final 45 laps to beat Kevin Harvick across the finish line and clinch a spot in the Championship 4.
ON YOUR MARK
Ford went to victory for the first time at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 9, 2005 when Mark Martin took the checkered flag in what was a Roush Fenway Racing runaway with teammates Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards finishing second and third, respectively. Martin led a race-high 139 laps, including 81 of the final 83 circuits, to win by one-half second. It marked the second time in as many months that RFR swept the top three spots, a feat it did two more times during that season. In addition, the victory ended up being Martin’s last with Ford. His 35 series wins with the manufacturer ranks tied for third all-time with Joey Logano, trailing only leader Ned Jarrett (43) and second-place Bill Elliott (40).
KANSAS IS CRAFTON’S BEST
Three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Matt Crafton comes into this weekend 15th in the point standings, but a seventh-place effort last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway has him and his No. 88 Ford F-150 team pointed in the right direction. He’ll look to continue the climb on Saturday at Kansas Speedway, where he has a career-high three victories (2013, 2015), including one with Ford in 2020. In 29 career starts, he has 15 top-10 finishes.
FIVE FORD DRIVERS IN TOP 10
The top 10 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings is dominated by Ford F-150 drivers as they make up half of that group, led by Chandler Smith in second place. The Front Row Motorsports pilot is joined by his teammate, Layne Riggs, in eighth place while the ThorSport racing trio of defending champion Ty Majeski (fifth), Jake Garcia (seventh) and Ben Rhodes (10th) also find themselves in playoff positions.
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS
AT KANSAS
2005 – Mark Martin
2007 – Greg Biffle
2010 – Greg Biffle
2012 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2014 – Joey Logano (2)
2015 – Joey Logano (2)
2018 – Kevin Harvick (1)
2019 – Brad Keselowski (1)
2020 – Joey Logano (2)
FORD NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT KANSAS
2003 – Jon Wood
2004 – Carl Edwards
2006 – Terry Cook
2007 – Erik Darnell
2020 – Matt Crafton (2)
2022 – Zane Smith (1)
The Ford Mustang, celebrating its 61st anniversary in 2025, is the world’s best selling sports car. It is also one of the planet’s most popular race cars. With Mustang Dark Horse-based race cars competing in international sports car competition (GT3 and GT4), NASCAR, Australian Supercars, NHRA, Formula Drift, at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and in its own bespoke one-make series – Mustang Cup and Mustang Challenge – the platform has an unprecedented global reach. This weekend, 56 Mustang race cars are scheduled to race across all disciplines.
Learn more at FordPerformance.com.
