Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Duel Race 1 — Daytona International Speedway
Thursday, February 12, 2026
JOEY LOGANO WINS FIRST DUEL RACE AS FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE FINISHES ONE-TWO
- Joey Logano won the first Duel race on Thursday night in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
- Ryan Blaney finished second to give Ford a one-two finish.
- Casey Mears clinched a spot in the Daytona 500 by being the highest-finishing Open car in his No. 66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Joey Logano
2nd – Ryan Blaney
4th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Casey Mears
9th – Ryan Preece
12th – Noah Gragson
16th – Chandler Smith
19th – Corey LaJoie
23rd – Chris Buescher
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – WHAT DID YOU LEARN AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR MUSTANG? “We definitely learned a lot. It was great teamwork all the way through. Ryan Blaney was a fantastic teammate there, which is expected. He’s always been that for us and we try to work together the best we can and when we’re able to do that correctly, we can see success together like this. First of all, I’ve got to thank him. Obviously, Nick Hensley, my gas man, that gave us position off of pit road to where we could defend and not have to try to move forward, so he did a great job. And Coleman Pressley up on the roof did a fantastic job with the info. It’’s all the things you work on over the offseason, but it’s awesome when it all comes together and you’re able to actually work out the plan. A lot of times people say there’s a plan and it goes out the window on lap one, but for us we were able to work it all the way to the end.” WHAT IS DAYTONA VICTORY LANE LIKE? “It’s special to bring this Shell/Pennzoil Mustang to Victory Lane no matter where it is, but the World Center of Speed is pretty much as good as it gets. It’s nice tonight, but it’s way better on Sunday, I promise you that.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Peak Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Luckily, we were just ahead of the chaos. There were a couple close calls. That one before the green-white-checkered I actually got tagged in the left-rear by the 24, but it was just very minimal and nothing happened. I got control of the race with Joey and myself after the pit stop and that caution happened. Then we were just able to line up and push really well together and maintain control of the race and run it to the end. I’m proud of the effort. Good teamwork tonight with a couple of fast cars and I look forward to going to Sunday. I’m happy the thing is in one piece.” WHAT CAN YOU DO AS A DRIVER TO NOT PUT YOUR TEAMMATE IN A BAD SPOT WITH THE PUSHING? “You never want to get bad pushes. I’ve always tried to take the best care of the guy I’m pushing no matter who it is. As the pusher, you’re responsible for that guy and it got a little squirrely a couple of times. The three-car tandem doesn’t work very good, like when I had the 36 up my bumper. That was when it really kind of got all over the place, and I think there are some things on our cars we can work on. I wasn’t super happy taking a push either, so hopefully we can work on that and figure out how to get that a little bit better, but it’s just nice. You want to put yourself in spots in the Duels with what you’re gonna be in for the 500 like pushing aggressively because you know that’s gonna happen at the end of that race. We were able to do it, but trying to do it safely to where we don’t junk two team cars is important. It was squirrely a couple times, but luckily we came out of it.”
CASEY MEARS, No. 66 SI Yachts/Gracie Foundation Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I told the guys on the radio, I said, ‘you just never know what Daytona is, right?’ I mean, it’s all the way until the last lap. You never know what’s going to happen. And, thankfully, right there, Jimmy didn’t have to push. I mean, he could have just got out of the mess and not be in the wreck, and he pushed me there with a good enough run to get around the outside. When they all wrecked, I got around everybody but the 99, and fortunately, I hit him so square that the car didn’t get too tore up. I was able to get it back. So, just super happy. I can’t believe we made it. It is just absolutely amazing.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Castrol Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU FEEL? “Pretty good. I feel like I can run the whole 500, so that’s the win. The loss here is that we didn’t win the Duel. We had four really good cars and, for whatever reason, it just got all mixed up there at the end and a bunch of them got tore up. I hate that for everybody at RFK. I’m not sure if I finished fourth or fifth. I was in front of the 42 for a long time there and the yellow was not coming out. I guess we’ll see when it actually came out, but I guess it was a reasonable day for the 6 team and I wish we got more for the other cars.” YOUR FORDS WERE SO FAST AND PREECE LED 38 LAPS? “Yeah, Ryan had a great race. I don’t know what happened to him at the end, but we did a lot of things well today, just didn’t finish it off.” DO YOU FEEL GOOD TO GO? ANY ISSUES WITH THE LEG? “Really good. The race car feels good.” WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO FINALLY WIN THIS RACE? “It’s the last crown jewel that I don’t have. I can taste it. We just have to bring it home.”
CHANDLER SMITH, No. 36 Quick Tie/Matheus Lumber Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I kept saying if it’s in the Lord’s Will to be in the 500, we’re gonna be in. If not, then we’re not. I’m just gonna try to make sure that I don’t put so much pressure on myself, enjoy it and make sure to set a culture for our 36 group. Don’t put too much pressure on everybody. Let’s just go out there and go do our jobs. I’m just very grateful for Jerry Freeze, Bob Jenkins, Matheus Lumber, Quick Tie products. Our Ford Mustang Dark Horse was really good tonight, it just wasn’t in the cards. We were in the right place, but maybe not the right time I guess.” WHAT ABOUT THOSE FINAL FEW LAPS WHEN YOU WERE NEXT TO THE 99 FOR THAT SPOT? “Honestly, our Penske alliance teammates did a phenomenal job. Thank you to Joey and Blaney for helping as much as you can and staying loyal trying to help get the 36 car in. They had every opportunity to go to the bottom and they kept dragging that top lane trying to get me clear. Once we did, we went down. I had the odds against me. I had two RFK cars right behind me once that happened. Brad started to juke me out and I knew what was coming. I went to block it and I felt like he was below the yellow line. I kind of held my ground, but he never lifted and I was like, ‘Man, it’s big picture right here. Do I keep him below and probably wreck us, or do I just give him the lane and live to fight another day.’ That’s what we chose to do and, honestly, it prevailed. We ended up passing the 99 and those guys again, it was just very unfortunate circumstances there at the end.” WHAT DID YOU SEE IN THE WRECK WITH THE 23? “It started with the 23. I don’t know if it was a bad push from whoever was behind the 23 or what, but I just saw the 23 start getting squirrely. He caught it, but once he caught it someone else, I think it was maybe the 17, jacked him back up and that was it. It just came right up in front of me and there was nowhere to go. I hate it, but, nevertheless, I’m super proud of everyone at Front Row Motorsports for the effort we put into this deal. Hopefully, we can do more this year. I honestly had a blast and I know my partners had a blast doing this deal. The 36 group had a great showing as well, so hopefully we can do a few more of these this year and maybe get the fourth FRM car in one of these races.”
COREY LAJOIE, No. 99 Trimble Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I’m just doing all you can do. I didn’t have great momentum off turn two there. I knew the line was gonna come to me, and it came to me right at the same time I picked up the 6 [car] and he hooked me. So… worst case scenario. We had it all there in front of us, and something out of our control takes it away, but that’s life, man. Keep on digging, keep your chin down, and keep taking one step at a time.”
