Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
FR8 208 Qualifying — EchoPark Speedway
Friday, February 20, 2026
NO. 98 FORD F-150 OF JAKE GARCIA WINS THE POLE AS THORSPORT SWEEPS THE FRONT ROW AT ECHOPARK SPEEDWAY
- Jack Garcia drove his No. 98 Ford F-150 to the pole this afternoon at EchoPark Speedway.
- Ben Rhodes qualified second to give ThorSport and Ford Racing a front row sweep.
- This marks the fourth career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pole for Garcia and first of 2026.
- ThorSport has all four F-150s in the top 10 as Cole Butcher qualified sixth and Ty Majeski seventh.
- Ford Racing is now 2-for-2 in NCTS qualifying this year after Majeski won the pole last week in Daytona.
Ford Qualifying Results:
1st – Jake Garcia
2nd – Ben Rhodes
6th – Cole Butcher
7th – Ty Majeski
19th – Layne Riggs
22nd – Chandler Smith
31st – Josh Reaume
32nd – Frankie Muniz
33rd – Clayton Green
34th – Tyler Tomassi
JAKE GARCIA, No. 98 Quanta Services/Curb Records Ford Mustang Ford F-150 – “It’s great to start out front here at Atlanta. It’s hard to pass and if you can control a lane, you can put yourself in a good position to get stage points. It’s really special to start on the pole here. It’s a home track for me and I’m excited to lead the field to green in front of a Georgia crowd.” WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THORSPORT WITH THIS QUALIFYING EFFORT? “I’m not sure. We’ll see when we get to the race, but it’s definitely a good effort. We were good at qualifying last year. We worked on some things and I feel like we got some things better, so we could pick up a little bit this year. Hopefully, we can get a few more poles this year.”
COLE BUTCHER, No. 13 Atlantic Tilt Load Ford Mustang Ford F-150 – “We can’t really complain. This Ford F-150 is really good. It’s kind of wild here in qualifying because I’m not really used to it, but that’s how these speedway races work. Daytona was pretty good. I felt like we were pretty quiet and made some moves at the end that didn’t quite go our way, but we were able to still finish top 15. I can’t thank everybody at ThorSport enough and Ford Racing. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.” WHAT ABOUT THIS STYLE OF RACING TOMORROW. WHAT DO YOU THINK? “I don’t really have any opinion right now. I think it’s gonna be pretty wild tomorrow. From what I hear, it gets pretty crazy out there depending on what package you have. I don’t really know what to expect, but I know what I’m gonna do as a driver and we’ll just have to see what happens.”
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Campers Inn RV Ford Mustang Ford F-150 – “I’m super happy for the organization. Locking out the front row is pretty cool for ThorSport and Ford Racing. We’re really happy about that, but the racer in me wanted the pole. I wanted to add that to our stat column, but nonetheless we have a really fast F-150 with the ability to race for the win tomorrow. That’s all you can ask for as a driver, so I’m stoked and ready to rip.”
JAKE GARCIA PRESS CONFERENCE
JAKE GARCIA: “The qualifying lap here is one of the easier laps we have of the year. I really give most of the credit to my guys for building a fast race truck. I think we’ve got a fast Quanta Services F-150 for tomorrow, so I’m really looking forward to it. I think we’re just gonna keep it out front and execute and hopefully come away with a good finish and competing for the win at the end of the race.”
WHAT DOES IT DO TO IMPACT YOUR STRATEGY WITH WHERE YOU’RE STARTING TOMORROW? “I don’t know that it’s gonna affect it much, but you definitely want to control the race as much as possible as long as you can. But I think maybe if you were starting in the back and you needed to flip track position, you would want to pit off-sequence or something to try to get ahead a little bit, but I think with everyone running in a pack and it being so close together, you can’t really do much different than what the norm would be as the leader, but you never know. If a caution comes out towards the end of the stage or in the middle of the stage where it’s close on fuel to make it to the next stage break, you might see a split strategy, but I think it should be fairly straightforward.”
BEING FROM MONROE, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GETTING THE POLE HERE? “This is obviously really special. This is a place where I came and watched races on my birthday and stuff like that, so I have a lot of memories up in the stands at this place. It’s really cool to be able to come here as a driver and lead the field to the green flag, so I’m really excited to be able to do that in front of a crowd of fellow Georgians. I’m really looking forward to it.”
YOU GUYS HAVE SHUFFLED TRUCK NUMBERS AT THORSPORT. WHAT GOES INTO THAT? “I think a lot of times, and the philosophy is kind of just if something is not working, we change it, whether that be with crew chiefs or truck numbers or whatever else may change up there. I think that it keeps a fresh cycle and keeps everybody on their toes certainly, but also they don’t let you be complacent if you’re not running good. They’ll change something and I think that mentality is what’s led to a lot of ThorSport’s success over the years, and I think it definitely helps drivers find the crew chiefs they’re best working with and things of that nature.”
ALL FOUR THORSPORT F-150S ARE STARTING IN THE TOP SEVEN. HOW WILL THAT HELP YOU GUYS AND IS THERE A STRATEGY TO WORK TOGETHER? “Yeah, it will definitely be important to work together in pack racing, especially here where I feel like the outside stacks up so much and it’s hard to make passes. You almost need a hole to get up in, so if you can get four trucks together where they’re nose-to-tail and not peeking on one another, then I don’t think anyone can really get by them unless the bottom lane forms up, which we have seen in the past, especially at the end of stages and the end of the race. I feel like that’s the main thing you can do to help out your position when working with teammates.”
