Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
eero 250
Friday, August 15, 2025
FOUR FORD F-150 DRIVERS QUALIFY FOR NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES PLAYOFFS
- Four Ford F-150 drivers made the 10-driver playoff field: Defending champion Ty Majeski, Chandler Smith, Layne Riggs and Jake Garcia.
- This marks the third straight season Majeski has qualified for the playoffs with Ford and the fourth time overall.
- Smith, who has two wins this season, is in the postseason for the third time in his Truck Series career.
- Riggs, who won at Pocono and IRP, and Garcia each earned their first playoff berth.
- The playoffs begin on Aug. 30 at Darlington Raceway.
Ford Finishing Results:
2nd – Ty Majeski
3rd – Layne Riggs
7th – Jake Garcia
8th – Ben Rhodes
9th – Chandler Smith
22nd – Luke Fenhaus
26th – Matt Crafton
32nd – Frankie Muniz
TY MAJESKI, No. 98 Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford F-150 – “You always want to win. When we got spun there when there was oil on the racetrack, there’s a pretty big wicker on that right-rear. My balance just went away a little bit. Even though it was probably good for aero, it was a little bit too good and just made me a little bit too tight that last run. Once I lost control of the race, the 17 is obviously pretty desperate. He moved me a couple times and I lost control. By the time I got to second I was pretty much done there. I’m very disappointed. We had a fast Soda Sense Ford F-150. I’m really proud of everybody at ThorSport. We have a lot of momentum going into the playoffs with a seventh last week and a second at Lime Rock. We’re in the game right now, so we just need to do our deal, step our way through the playoffs and anything could happen.”
LAYNE RIGGS, No. 38 Love’s RV Stop Ford F-150 – “It’s very exciting. It was a strong night for us. I didn’t think we were that great in practice, so to turn around and have a strong performance like that and even at some glimpses in the race feel like I was the best on the racetrack. We had just a good overall day and, in my opinion, that’s what champions are made of. The strategy was so crazy there that it’s really fun as a driver getting put in situations if you’re on old tires or new tires and going forward and falling back. It’s kind of crazy. The 98 spun out and somehow lined up in front of us still, which amazes me, but hat’s off to everybody at Front Row Motorsports. This Love’s Travel Stops Ford F-150 was a good truck, but not a winning truck, so we’ve got to do a little bit of work. It was a good, solid night. We finished second in regular season points. That was really our goal coming into today was to do that and get as many playoff points as we could, so we accomplished that and I’m really happy about that.” HOW DOES IT FEEL TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE FIRST TIME? “That’s what our goal was, and I feel like if we weren’t in the playoffs this year that something drastically went wrong with as fast as we’ve been. Hat’s off to everybody at Front Row. I feel like I’ve just gotten so much better as a driver over the past year and a half, and I think we’re gonna be a force to be reckoned with in this championship. I know that the two guys that finished in front of me are fierce competitors and really strong at Phoenix, but I think we’ve got something for them.”
JAKE GARCIA, No. 13 Quanta Services Ford F-150 – HOW MUCH WERE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO WHERE BEN WAS RUNNING? “I was paying attention to that, especially after we had two good first stages and built a cushion. At that point, it was just a matter of managing our gap and making sure there was no possible way we could crash. I think we did a good job of that, and I tried my best to run a smart race after we had a little bit of a cushion and just get this thing in the playoffs.” HOW DO YOU TAKE THIS CONFIDENCE INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “I think part of the confidence is how fast our truck was today. I know we finished seventh, but I certainly think we were a top three to five truck. We saw that in stage two with how quickly we passed some of those guys. I think we were even catching the 98 a little bit there at the end, so, overall, I’m just really proud of how fast our truck was and the speed we brought. If we can continue to bring that speed into the playoffs, I think we’ll be alright.” SMILE. YOU’RE IN THE PLAYOFFS. “I appreciate it. It’s definitely exciting and I’m just proud of the effort and glad these guys got a little reward and be able to reward them for all of their hard work this year.”
BEN RHODES, No. 99 TSPORT Trucks Ford F-150 – IT SEEMED LIKE NO CAUTION FELL THE WAY YOU NEEDED IT TO. “Yeah, that’s a really good summary. I was about to say the same thing. I missed our pit box and, honestly, it wasn’t a terrible thing. It put us in position to capitalize on the first caution that came out. The problem was the second caution that came out after that. That really did us in. We had 10 lap older tires than the rest of the field at that point and I think we were going to finish anywhere from second, third or fourth to I don’t even know where we finished at that point. And then again the caution came out with the 88 truck. I think that was the last one of the night and I think we racked back out at like 27th place. It was somewhere way back in the pack. I don’t even know, but had those cautions fell a little differently, it would have been easier to get those 11 points we needed tonight. It stinks. Not good, but they play out like that sometimes. You get in these positions from the whole season. Obviously, our regular season didn’t go the way we wanted. There are a few races that come to mind right away. Rockingham, a power-steering failure right away. Homestead, we got caught up in a turn one, lap one wreck from having to go to the back after a mechanical issue in qualifying, so there is stuff like that we could clean up and I think it would have been a different story tonight, but that’s just part of it.” TWO YEARS SINCE YOUR TITLE AND IT’S BEEN A SLOG. WHAT IS THIS TEAM DOING BEHIND THE SCENES THAT WE DON’T SEE TO STAY RESILIENT? “They’re putting in as many hours as I’ve ever seen. They’re working as hard as I’ve ever seen, but it just seems like we need a little bit more pace right now. You can point your finger at anything, but, obviously, some of those low hanging fruit items – the mechanical issues that we had earlier on, that would have changed the story for tonight, but the pace, we’ve got to find that still. We’ve had moments of brilliance throughout the year, the same with my teammates, but we need that consistent speed that some of our competitors have, like, obviously, the 11 truck.” IS THE REST OF THE SEASON TRYING TO FIND THAT CONSISTENCY FOR NEXT SEASON? “I think so. If I know Duke Thorson, which I think I do now after running for Duke for so many years, he’s gonna say, ‘Absolutely.’ The rest of the season is R&D to him, which he’s probably bittersweet in that regard because now we get to kind of try things and do things we didn’t think we could do, so you’re no longer in a box. I don’t necessarily have to run for points and we can set ourselves up for the end of the race for wins. We weren’t able to do that at Watkins Glen last week and quite a few races now. I guess that’s the silver lining if there is one.” ARE YOU A TEAM PLAYER IN THAT SENSE? DO YOU BECOME THE GUY THAT TRIES THINGS FOR THEM? “I would like to be. Now, if they use that, that’s a different story (laughing). Crew chiefs and drivers, especially crew chiefs, are all pretty stubborn. They all really like what they like, so I might find something that could be five seconds faster than the field. I don’t know if somebody else would necessarily use it though. It’s just kind of the nature of this sport.”
CHANDLER SMITH, No. 38 The Pete Store Ford F-150 – “I’m definitely proud of the effort of everybody on this No. 38 team. It’s certainly not the day we wanted. Honestly, we’ve missed it since probably about Charlotte, just kind of slowly went downhill a little bit and haven’t been able to find our way back to where we were at the start of the year. We’re just trying to get our momentum back on our side going into the playoffs, going into Darlington and start off on the right foot.”
