Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying
Watkins Glen International
Saturday, August 9, 2025
Ryan Blaney earned the pole position for tomorrow’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International in the No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse. His time of 71.96 seconds (122.568 mph) was good for his first pole position at Watkins Glen, the 12th NASCAR Cup pole of his career. The quick time was also good for Team Penske’s 150th career NASCAR Cup Series pole position.
NCS RACE FORD QUALIFIERS
1st – Ryan Blaney
11th – Joey Logano
12th – Chris Buescher
13th – Austin Cindric
16th – Brad Keselowski
17th – Ryan Preece
24th – Josh Berry
28th – Todd Gilliland
32nd – Cole Custer
34th – Zane Smith
36th – Noah Gragson
37th – Cody Ware
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I was planning on running two [laps] regardless. I made my first lap and I saw my time and thought ‘that is pretty good’. The normal pickup I thought was going to be a few tenths and I ran like a mid-20 my first lap. I knew the benchmark. I knew what Shane [Van Gisbergen] ran in the first group. I knew you had to be probably in the low 72s, high 71s to get the pole. I knew I had a really good lap going. I got through the Esses really good. [turns] two and three I got up the hill really well. My car stuck well. I thought I gave a little bit back in the Bus Stop. I kind of committed really hard in there and got loose and hit the curbs wrong. But luckily I had a buffer from the Esses to be able to afford a little mistake. I thought it was going to be pretty good. Judging on the first lap I thought I could compete pretty good for the first handful of spots. Little surprising I was able to run that fast.
ABOUT PROGRESS WITH THE TEAM PENSKE ROAD COURSE PROGRAM – Overall, in general, we have been working really hard in our road course program. It is an area we aren’t as strong as we would like to be, and that is all of Team Penske. We have done a great job of that. I thought we had a great run at Sonoma, didn’t get the finish I thought we deserved. But that was a big step. I felt pretty decent at Chicago. So we are creeping up on this road course thing as a group. From my side, just personal reflection of watching races and watching my own data. Man, you’ve got to do these things just a little bit better. Whether it is braking technique, how do you apply and roll off the brakes differently? How do you commit to carrying speed in the center? It’s all little things. Joey Hand is a Ford Performance guy that really helps me out. He sat at the simulator with me a long time. He’s done it for the last few years. So talking to Joey before this race weekend really helped me out. He explains things in a really good way that I can understand and grasp as a racer. It is just a lot of little things that we put our focus into. We were able to accomplish it for one day. Hopefully we can accomplish it again tomorrow.“
ABOUT RACING AGAINST SHANE VAN GISBERGEN – “I think it is the first time he and I have raced together on a road course, side-by-side. People ask me all the time ‘what does Shane do when you are out there running that he is doing so much better?’ I am like I don’t really race with him that much. He is so much ahead that I don’t really see what he is doing. He is just so much faster. It is going to be neat. Bubba [Wallace] actually came up to me and said ‘congrats but now he is going to make you look really bad.’ One day at a time. I beat him one day. Tomorrow is going to be a lot different and a more difficult task for sure. It is nice to qualify well. Hopefully we are racing together so that I am picking up a few things, that I am seeing them with my own eyes. A lot of it is stuff you can’t see but I think if I see from my seat with my own eyes, I might be able to learn from that. Whenever you can learn from the best guys out there, and obviously he is the very best at the road course stuff, it is always nice. I try and take all of that and absorb it.
Ninety laps are going to be a little harder tomorrow to beat him but you gotta start somewhere right? I think it’s more neat for me just knowing that from our side, the 12 team had an absolutely abysmal weekend here last year. Saturday practice was awful. Qualifying we were terrible and then we made a half a lap in the race because we qualified so bad and went home early. We worked really hard on where we need to get better here. Where do I need to do a better job and how can we improve our race cars as well. It took a big dual effort. I consider myself a pretty average road course racer. I work really hard to try to get better. Where can I improve my driving style and skills so I can compete a little bit better at these places? It is neat when all of that comes together. I try and take all of these things one day at a time. Tomorrow is a whole different task but it is nice to have done our job really well today. But now it is about focusing on how we turn this around and get 90 really good laps tomorrow.”
DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE THE ROAD COURSE GUY AT TEAM PENSKE – I feel like all of us have our weekends. I feel like some weekends I have a little bit of an edge and then other weekends Joey, then Austin. I think we all kind of rotate. No real specific reason why. I think some road courses fit the style of each guy a little bit differently. I don’t think there is one guy who is the road course guy in our group.”
ABOUT WAITING ONE YEAR TO RETURN TO WATKINS GLEN AFTER MAKING ONLY A HALF LAP IN 2024 – “I got over it very quick. I don’t really stew on things very often. I think maybe for that night. I try to let it go when I open my eyes the next day. I try to make sure it is all gone and focus on the next task. Trying to prepare for this weekend, we didn’t really have any race notes to talk about. That was a little bit difficult so we just looked at a lot of practice [notes from 2024] and where did we struggle at in practice. That was our best comparison to race pace and qualifying pace kind of trickled into that. It was a rough weekend last year. Like the two days were brutal and everyone’s confidence was pretty down. Sitting and going through this year and working on our road course stuff and pinpointing this one as one we could really learn and did we improve? It is a huge benchmark of did we get our stuff better from year to year. A huge props to everyone on our group on digging in and figuring out did we get better?”
ON LANE CHOICE FOR THE START TOMORROW – “I’m not sure yet. Watching ARCA and Trucks and then this Xfinity race today, Look at some trends and see what we are feeling tomorrow. I look at all of that stuff. How does it launch? How is [turn] seven for the inside or the outside guy? So I will be thinking about that overnight and tomorrow.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Snap-on Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We are in the ball game tomorrow. A lot to learn for tomorrow on what this tire has to offer and what is going to be important for the race. Lots to review and see how aggressive we need to be. I think it is easy to observe data and exceptionally difficult to apply it. There are a lot of other factors. Being able to have some flexibility with your car’s balance over the course of a run I think will be important for calling a strategy. Track position is super important here, just as it is anywhere. We have had a good couple of weeks with Indy and Iowa. It is one of those things that you don’t change anything with your preparation or processes but bam you are running upfront and contending for wins two weeks in a row. It is always a nice kick in the pants to know we are all doing a lot of the right things and you just have to keep the ball rolling. The team feels good.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Esperion Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I thought we had a really good race at Sonoma. Our road course stuff has gotten a lot better. I’d like to have a little more pace but the way these races are playing out it’s so crazy you never know what is going to happen. I don’t feel like we are crushing on strategy, I just feel like we have had really fast cars lately. If anything, I feel that some of the strategy stuff hasn’t gone our way. We just feel confident we need to do our best to be fast and put ourselves into position. Our team has grown together. We went through a lot of changes during the off season and it is nice to see them come together and click.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Mohawk Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I think road racing, from a challenge yourself perspective, is definitely different and one that I enjoy. I don’t change my approach by any means [when racing a teammate for the Playoffs}. I look at it as an opportunity of going out and executing. Chirs [Buescher] is tough. He is fast and he is not someone that makes mistakes. These next three races its completely different. Road course racing he is really, really good at and I am continuing to push myself to be better. Richmond is a place that I know he has won at but I feel really comfortable there as well. Then we have a superspeedway. There are a lot of things we have to do right but we are up to the challenge and we can do that. I know we are close on points. At the end of the day it comes down to execution. Road courses can be challenging. There’s an opportunity to go get stage points and you want to do that. But sometimes you do that at the detriment of the finish.”
