Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Cook Out 400
Saturday, August 16, 2025
Ford Finishing Results:
3rd – Ryan Blaney
4th – Joey Logano
5th – Austin Cindric
8th – Josh Berry
9th – Brad Keselowski
11th – Zane Smith
24th – Cole Custer
25th – Todd Gilliland
27th – Noah Gragson
30th – Chris Buescher
32nd – Cody Ware
35th – Ryan Preece
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED WITH THOSE FOUR LAP FRESHER TIRES ON THE LAST RUN? EVERYBODY THOUGHT YOU WOULD RUN DILLON DOWN. “Yeah, me too. Overall, honestly, it was a really good night and a really good weekend. We got better all night and led some laps. I thought we were in a great position to try to contend for it. I thought running long was the play there because he came up there and passed me. So we were like, let’s try and have a handful of fresher tires. I was trying to be really disciplined when I got back on the racetrack of like, ‘let the tires do their thing and maybe I’ll get to him at the end of this run.’ I don’t know. They just fell off a cliff really hard. It kind of surprised me a little bit, but, overall, a good night. I wish we could have been closer. It’s unfortunate that our worst run of the race was our last run, but I don’t really know what we could have done different. It was just one of those odd things, but, overall, a really good finish and a good showing. We work really hard at this place, so hopefully we learned some stuff going forward.” THREE TEAM PENSKE FORDS IN THE TOP FIVE. HOW DOES THAT FEEL? “Yeah, it’s a great night by Penske to have all of us right there. Obviously, we would have liked to have been one, two, three, but it’s a really good night. I thought we had a great shot at having a chance to win it there. Gosh, I was really good at the end of the first run of the third stage and then I kind of jumped him. I think we pitted a lap earlier than him and he got back by me at the end, and then we ran a handful of laps later trying to have a little tire advantage there at the end. I was trying to be super conservative, like mindful of letting the tires do their thing the last run and just be really straight, and I just fell off a cliff right away. It kind of surprised me. I thought I was being the most conservative I was all night and it was the worst result, but, overall, a good night. This is a place I struggle at a little bit and we work really hard to get better here, and it was a really good showing for us and a really good showing for all of Team Penske.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I’m happy with the effort. It’s a shame the restart in stage three went the way it did because we had a really great long run car and I just had to drive the snot out of it to move through the field. I thought we were maybe good enough to contend for a top three finish if not a win if we didn’t get so far back, but it takes all the pieces. My team ran a playoff capable race tonight and the boys are ramping up.” HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR DAY WITH THE TIRES AND STRATEGY? “We had just a really fast race car, a complete car, and that’s what it takes at a racetrack like this. I always say there’s nowhere to hide and sometimes I’ve wanted to hide coming here and other times like tonight it’s a really rewarding track to get into that rhythm. Obviously, everybody at Team Penske did a great job building three fast Ford Mustangs and I wish the initial restart in stage three would have gone better for us. We kind of got stuck top of four and in the wash, but I’m proud of the guys. They kept up with the track well and I’m proud of the effort.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 eero Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was an up-and-down day. I thought we did a really good job managing everything, but we would have liked to have been a little bit better. We just struggled with the balance a little bit. It got better the second half for sure, but would have liked to have been a little bit better towards the end, but, all in all, a really good job for these 21 guys.” HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET A TOP 10 AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR? “This is what we know we’re capable of, but we’ve had some misfortune. Maybe we had a couple races where we weren’t as fast as we wanted, but we’ve had a lot of bad luck. Tonight is what we’re capable of. We know that going into the playoffs, so it’s nice to have a solid run and, like I said, we’ll go to Daytona and get ready for the playoffs after that.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We had a really fast Shell/Pennzoil Mustang. The car had a lot of speed in it, but we just had to overcome too much. We got up into contention and then we had a flat right-rear and lost all of it again, and then steadily grind your way back into the top five. Apparently, I needed maybe 500 or 600 laps. It’s just not our weekend. We had a flat tire in practice and then another flat tire in the race and both of them were punctures. It’s not like we were being too aggressive or anything like that, it’s just running over crap on the racetrack. Not our weekend.”
