Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona 500 — Daytona International Speedway
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Ford Unofficial Finishing Order:
3rd – Joey Logano
5th – Brad Keselowski
6th – Zane Smith
7th – Chris Buescher
9th – Josh Berry
11th – Noah Gragson
25th – Ryan Preece
27th – Ryan Blaney
32nd – Casey Mears
34th – Austin Cindric
39th – Todd Gilliland
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I don’t know. The whole race just didn’t really go as well as I would have hoped. In the first stage, when everyone stayed out and made it, we didn’t go for that. So, we lost points there. And it kind of still set us back. You know, we had a hard time just getting back up there. We had a great pit cycle, but no one was great with us. So, we lost all the position we gained on pit road when I got swallowed up by the field. And then made a great move at the end, got three wide on top, got to the front. I had an opportunity to get underneath the Spire cars. It felt like it was the right move, I made it, and the car was just slow at the end. I think the damage I got from the wreck earlier hurt it more than I expected when I put it back out in the wind which made me go back a little bit.” TO SALVAGE A TOP FIVE UNDER THIS NEW POINTS SYSTEM, DOES THAT GIVE YOU SOME CONCESSION? “Yeah, I’m not upset. I mean, we finished third in the Daytona 500. Honestly, we’ve led a lot of laps in this race and we haven’t seen the finish in years. So… I saw the finish. I ended up in the same place, you know, the infield care center, but I saw the finish this time and that’s much better.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Castrol Ford Mustang Dark Horse – A FIFTH-PLACE FINISH IN THE DAYTONA 500. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL? “Good and bad. You know? I’m happy that we were so competitive today, and where I was a few weeks ago, to just be able to run the race, feels pretty good. But then super disappointed. I had a big run off of turn four and I felt like I could have made a three wide pass for the lead at the line, and the 35 just dumped me in the wall. But he got his part of it. All in all, we made something of it with a top five day.”
EVERYTHING FEELING OK AFTER THE INCIDENT? “Yeah, great. Yeah, feel real good.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Speedy Cash Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s painful that the 45 was, I guess, in my position, but I know I didn’t have the run on the 9 that I needed to win and so I tried backing up to any help I could get, and then obviously it fell apart there at the end. All in all, it’s a great growing day for us and some great points scored, but frustrating to be that close and just miss out.” YOU WERE IN POSITION TO WIN, WHICH IS ALL YOU GUYS SAY YOU CAN ASK FOR. “For sure. It’s not every day you have a shot to win the Daytona 500, so that feels great and I feel like there were some great points scored, just not quite enough.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Body Guard Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was nuts right there at the finish. I’m really proud of everybody to take this Body Guard Ford Mustang from dead last on the field and run it up to a top 10 finish. It’s impressive. This team did such a phenomenal job. We are continuously in the hunt to win these things. We had a teammate with us this time, but just couldn’t close it. There were a couple good blocks from some others that really stalled us out.” WHAT DID YOU FEEL OUT THERE AS FAR AS PUSHING? “Our car pushed really well. I watched a lot of people struggle with handling, especially when the sun was out. It seemed like it got a lot better those last 50 laps and I think that made the racing so much tighter off of four. I think we would have had some bigger lifts had the end of the race been an hour earlier, but it was still a good run all the way to the end. I’m proud of RFK. Everybody on this team, I can’t thank them enough. That was our backup car and that was a lot of work for everybody on this team and they did a phenomenal job.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We really just tried to stay with Chris and Brad the best I could, but it seemed like I could stay pretty close to them but whoever was behind me would lose me and we couldn’t get it going like we wanted. All in all, it was a solid final stage. We had a complete disaster in the first stage and rebounded really well and gave ourselves a chance at it at the end.” YOU WERE IN POSITION TO WIN ON THAT LAST RESTART. DID YOU THINK YOU COULD POTENTIALLY WIN? “Yes and no. I wanted to be a little bit further forward than we were. We just had the cycle work out and we slipped back a little bit further than I wanted, but we were still in striking distance. You see how much happens in the last couple of laps, but, all in all, we ran a good race and we had a really good Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang. I’m really proud of the guys.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU HAD SOME ADVERSITY EARLY ON, BUT YOU CAME BACK AND WAS RIGHT THERE AT THE END. “Yeah. We had a decent opportunity at the end, but the 66 gave us a bunch of damage on lap five. That sucked because that parachuted me with the left-rear and we had no real straight line speed after that. It is what it is, but we’ll keep on trying to finish races and enjoy it. We’ll be alright.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was definitely a shame to get caught up in that wreck. Wrong lane, wrong time for that to all happen. That’s the way it goes, but we had a fast Ford Mustang Dark Horse. The Discount Tire boys and everybody did a great job to get our track position and get some stage points and in position really to get more there. It’s good to work with the Ford boys, but we just weren’t able to see it to the end and, unfortunately, not able to make enough of an impact to help a Ford win the race. I expect us to have a lot of the same opportunities next week and we’ll try to make the most of them.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I don’t know what happened, but that’s two incidents that were completely out of my control. The first one only really got me and the second one was in my lap again. I guess that’s how these things go sometimes. It just really sucks. We made our way all the way back up there in our Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse and that was really impressive, but we’ll just have to do what we can next week.”
