DARLINGTON 1
Friday, March 20 – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, March 21 – NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, 5:30 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, March 22 – NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (FS1)
All three of NASCAR’s top national series will be in action this weekend as Darlington Raceway hosts a tripleheader beginning Friday night with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Ford Racing has won two of the season’s first three races with F-150 drivers Chandler Smith and Layne Riggs while Mustang Dark Horse driver Ryan Blaney owns a win on the Cup side.
BLANEY THIRD IN STANDINGS
Ryan Blaney continues to be the highest Ford Racing driver in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings as he sits third after five races. Even though he saw his streak of three straight top-10 finishes come to an end in Las Vegas, Blaney was more a victim of an ill-timed caution that resulted in a 16th-place result. In the last three weeks, Blaney has shown consistent speed, which includes being Ford’s best qualifier at Circuit of The Americas and Las Vegas, and a victory at Phoenix Raceway sandwiched between.
RFK STILL ROLLING
The RFK Racing trio of Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece continued their solid start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season as all three finished 11th or better in Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Buescher finished a Ford-best sixth while Keselowski was 10th and Preece 11th. That marked the second time in five events that at least two RFK Mustangs finished in the top 10 (Daytona), which doesn’t include the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in which Preece won and Buescher was eighth. All three drivers are currently in the top 16 overall with Buescher ninth, Keselowski 12th and Preece 13th in the point standings.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: “My eyes are wide open. The biggest thing I’m thinking about at Darlington is to go 50 laps on a set of tires was almost impossible with the Next Gen car in the last two or three seasons, and now that we have more horsepower and less aero, I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to go 35 laps. So, keeping up with the tires is going to be a big challenge. The drivers managing it, the teams putting our setups to where it can do it. Darlington is going to be a heavy lift. It’s always a heavy lift, but it’s a heavier lift now, I think, with these circumstances and a lot of unknowns entering the race at Darlington. It might turn out no different, but I don’t think that will be the case. I think it’s gonna be a really difficult race.”
KESELOWSKI SCORES FIRST WIN FOR MUSTANG DARK HORSE;
FIRST AS DRIVER/OWNER
Brad Keselowski passed Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick with nine laps to go after those two made contact battling for the lead to capture the Goodyear 400 in 2024 at Darlington Raceway. It was the first race win for the Ford Mustang Dark Horse. The win represented the first for Keselowski since he became co-owner with Jack Roush and snapped a 110-race winless streak. Keselowski qualified second and was a fixture at the front of the field all afternoon. He finished third in Stage 1, second in Stage 2, and completed the progression as he led five times for 37 laps on the day.
LOGANO PICKS UP FIRST DARLINGTON WIN
Joey Logano passed William Byron with two laps to go to win the Goodyear 400 in 2022 for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and first at Darlington Raceway. Logano dominated the Throwback Weekend, capturing the pole on Saturday and then winning the first stage before green flag pit stops and race strategy took over. He went on to lead eight times for 107 laps, most among all drivers, and dueled with Byron for the win over the final 26 laps.
A TOP FOUR FORD SWEEP
Ford Racing is coming off a sweep of the top four positions in the inaugural St. Petersburg Street Race two weeks ago in which Layne Riggs drove his Love’s Travel Stops Ford F-150 to victory with Ty Majeski second, Ben Rhodes third and Chandler Smith fourth. The last time Ford achieved that kind of sweep was on Oct. 11, 1998 at Sears Point for the Kragen/Exide 151 in which Boris Said won with Mike Bliss second, Tony Raines third and Joe Ruttman fourth.
QUALIFYING HOT STREAK
Ford Racing has gotten off to a fast start in 2026, having won two of the first three events with Front Row Motorsports teammates Chandler Smith and Layne Riggs. But that also pertains to qualifying, where the Blue Oval is 2-for-2 after ThorSport Racing teammates Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia claimed the pole at Daytona and Atlanta, respectively. Qualifying in St. Petersburg was canceled due to weather.
FOUR OF THE TOP FIVE
After three races, Ford F-150 drivers make up four of the top five spots in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings. Chandler Smith, the only driver in the series who has posted top 10 finishes in all three events, leads the way by 34 points over Ben Rhodes, who is the only Ford driver with a series win at Darlington. Ty Majeski is third while Layne Riggs is fifth.
FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS
AT DARLINGTON
1956 – Curtis Turner
1960 – Joe Weatherly (1)
1961 – Fred Lorenzen and Nelson Stacy
1962 – Nelson Stacy and Larry Frank
1963 – Fireball Roberts (2)
1964 – Fred Lorenzen
1965 – Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett
1968 – David Pearson (1)
1969 – Lee Roy Yarbrough (2)
1970 – David Pearson (1)
1981 – Neil Bonnett (2)
1982 – Dale Earnhardt (1)
1985 – Bill Elliott (Sweep)
1988 – Bill Elliott (2)
1992 – Bill Elliott (1)
1993 – Mark Martin (2)
1994 – Bill Elliott (2)
1997 – Dale Jarrett (1)
1998 – Dale Jarrett (1)
1999 – Jeff Burton (Sweep)
2001 – Dale Jarrett (1)
2005 – Greg Biffle
2006 – Greg Biffle
2018 – Brad Keselowski
2020 – Kevin Harvick (1) and (3)
2022 – Joey Logano (1)
2024 – Brad Keselowski (1) and Chase Briscoe (2)
FORD NOAPS WINNERS AT DARLINGTON
1993 – Mark Martin (2)
1994 – Mark Martin (Sweep)
1995 – Mark Martin (2)
1996 – Mark Martin (1)
1997 – Jeff Burton (2)
1999 – Mark Martin (2)
2000 – Mark Martin (Sweep)
2001 – Jeff Green (1) and Jeff Burton (2)
2002 – Jeff Burton (Sweep)
2004 – Greg Biffle
2005 – Matt Kenseth
2009 – Matt Kenseth
2018 – Brad Keselowski
2019 – Cole Custer
2020 – Chase Briscoe (1)
FORD NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT DARLINGTON
2020 – Ben Rhodes
As the spirit of America, the Ford Mustang is the world’s best selling sports car and one of the planet’s most popular race cars. With Mustang-based race cars competing in international sports car competition (GT3 and GT4), NASCAR, NHRA, Formula Drift, in Supercars, at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and in its own bespoke regional one-make series – Mustang Cup and Mustang Challenge – the platform has an unprecedented global reach. This weekend, 46 Mustang race cars are scheduled to race across all disciplines. Learn more about Mustang at www.FordRacing.com.
