Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Duel Race 2 — Daytona International Speedway
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Ford Finishing Order:
6th – Josh Berry
8th – Todd Gilliland
14th – Zane Smith
17th – Austin Cindric
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a lot of fun, honestly. We finally got up to the front there the last couple of laps. I’m really pretty happy with the decisions I made the last five to 10 laps of the race to get us up there and just needed a little more time. It was a lot of fun I learned a lot. The team did a great job and the car is in one piece and we didn’t wreck, so it was a good day.” THE 2 WAS LEADING THE INSIDE ROW AND YOU WERE AT THE BACK OF A FIVE-CAR PACK, BUT IT JUST DIDN’T SEEM TO MOVE. “It’s just hard. The top got running so well that I think we saw a few people make a good effort to go to the bottom, but the top was just faster and we had to stay up there to make it happen. There was a lot of momentum up there, so, like I said, overall I thought we all did a pretty good job and learned a lot. Sunday should be fun.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “The third lane was super dominant there at the end with the laps on tires, but we actually probably overachieved on the pit cycle there and was able to come out second on the cycle, but I had too big of a gap to some of the cars behind. I zig zagged and got hooked up with Todd. We were making the bottom work for quite a while, but it just lost strength and that’s kind of where we faded back and then you’re just taking runs after you lose track position, so it’s a shame we don’t have a better starting spot for our Discount Tire Ford, but I definitely learned a lot from tonight and I’m looking forward to applying it on Sunday.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was OK. I felt like we were kind of stuck in the back the whole first half of the race. I feel like our on and off pit road was pretty good and then I got back going there OK. It was weird. Usually, it’s never gone single-file around the top like that in the Next Gen history here. It was kind of an odd race and probably not what the people expected. We kept trying to go to the bottom, but just no luck down there. I think we definitely have a lot to work on with our car. I was a little bit tight there, but we’ll keep working. We’ve got a clean car to keep buffing on it until Sunday.” YOU WERE ON THE BOTTOM PUSHING CINDRIC, BUT THAT BOTTOM LINE JUST DIDN’T SEEM TO MOVE. “Yeah, I felt like I was pushing the 2 really hard and we were just kind of barely maintaining, which was not the most fun thing because I felt like as soon as a guy bailed behind us we were gonna be toast and we definitely were. That’s how it goes I guess, so we’ll keep working.”
