Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
FireKeepers Casino 400
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Ford Unofficial Finishing Results
2nd – Chris Buescher
7th – Zane Smith
9th – Ryan Preece
10th – Brad Keselowski
12th – Josh Berry
22nd – Joey Logano
26th – Cody Ware
27th – Noah Gragson
31st – Austin Cindric
32nd – Ryan Blaney
33rd – Todd Gilliland
35th – Cole Custer
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/Kraft/Artesano Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “That was such a fast Kroger/Heinz Ford Mustang. I really appreciate everybody on this team working so hard to put us in this situation and to have a chance to win. I’m disappointed I didn’t get it done. It’s on me. I had a couple different decisions I would love to go back and make and ultimately should have had us ahead of the 11. We were faster on the day and I didn’t do a good enough job. We’ll certainly take the good with it. We certainly need a little bit of good luck or fortune on our side. This is a day where we kind of made our own. We were really fast and worked hard to be there and just didn’t have any bad luck, so that put us with a shot to win. After the last handful of weeks with having speed in the first stage and qualifying and not being able to get the race finish that was certainly big, but it’s frustrating to be that close and to know that we had a car that was capable of winning. I just needed to do a better job.”
YOU WERE UP FRONT EARLY AND THEN WENT TO THE BACK. WHAT HAPPENED? “We had to put a little more fuel in it the first stop, so we lost a little bit of track position there and then I had a bad restart where I got jammed up behind some of the guys that had big moments and lost a ton of track position. That’s kind of what I was talking about when I said I need to do better. I need to make better decisions in those moments. Those were the times where we lost a ton of spots and put us behind, and then had to scratch and claw our way out the rest of the day. Ultimately, a couple of those little areas – a bobble or two here or there that cost us some spots at a couple key moments that fall directly on me.”
IS THERE SOME COMFORT KNOWING THIS 17 WAS FAST TODAY? “Yeah, definitely. It hurts right now, but certainly there’s a ton of positive out of today. Our car was so fast here from the time we unloaded off the truck yesterday. We’ve been fast at all these mile-and-a-halves and that’s a huge step for us. I’m certainly proud of that and excited for what we have to come, but there’s a little bit of a sting right now to be that close and miss out.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “There’s a lot of positive from the speed and how my car drove today, especially when we made it better. We had positive restarts and just a lot of positives. I’m on two tires there trying to hold off guys that are on four. If I’m on four against four in the Cup Series that’s already hard enough, so I was trying my best at defending but ultimately we got beat there some. All in all, I’m proud to end up in the top 10 there with Long John Silver’s on board and everyone at FRM. I wish we could have gotten Ford a W here in their home state, but we’ll try again next year.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We had a really good car. I felt like we had a top two or three car and just didn’t get to see it through. I’m really disappointed. We kind of crushed ourselves on pit road with the speeding penalty and then having to go around the 45 and the 71. Every time we pitted we would lose a lot of spots. It wasn’t the pit crew’s fault, we just needed a better pit stall. I’m not really sure on the speeding penalty. I felt I was way slow, so getting called fast didn’t really add up, but we had the speed to do a lot more than we did today and I’m disappointed to not get that. Still, we’re reasonably happy with a top 10.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It seemed like one of those days that it wasn’t meant to be. We were just a little bit tight for the first run and that kind of took us by surprise, but we made the car a little better and took the strategy to stay out and try to win the stage on old tires. I felt more would stay, but we got passed there on the last lap. All in all, it was a good recovery from the back of the field and then we had a left-rear tire fail on that green flag run. I feel like we probably would have been able to make our way back up close to the top 10. Like I said, there was a lot of good, but a lot of bad, too. There’s plenty to clean up and ready for a new adventure in Mexico.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Martin Transportation Systems Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “There was zero warning at all. Obviously, everyone is kind of pushing it. We’ve seen some left-rears down in practice, but that was a very unfortunate place for mine to go out that’s for sure. It’s just wild that you have a long time to think about hitting the wall, but it’s all good. It honestly wasn’t even a bad hit at all, so I’m proud of my guys for making my car better throughout the day. It’s unfortunate.” WERE YOU LOW ON TIRE PRESSURES TRYING TO CREATE SPEED LIKE EVERYBODY DOES HERE? “To be honest, I don’t know what we were, but we can both imagine that I’m sure we were pushing it. Everyone pushes it. We pushed ours a little bit too far.”
