Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Goodyear 400 Qualifying — Darlington Raceway
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Ford Qualifying Results:
5th – Brad Keselowski
6th – Chris Buescher
7th – Ryan Blaney
12th – Austin Cindric
17th – Ryan Preece
19th – Zane Smith
26th – Josh Berry
29th – Joey Logano
30th – Noah Gragson
31st – Todd Gilliland
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I thought it was really smooth. It looks like Chris is qualified right next to me. I felt like I got all it had. We know the cars are gonna be very difficult to drive and that did not disappoint.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Delta Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I kind of messed up half of it, but overall it wasn’t a bad qualifying effort. I’m looking forward to seeing where it ends up, but hopefully it’s in the top 10. We’ll see.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “That was a big moment into turn one, but outside of that I got down in three and four and drove it all the way to scared, so that slowed us down there. Everyone on this Fifth Third Ford Mustang Dark Horse did a great job. I’m proud of that qualifying effort. We had our woes on the day and that was a great recovery time to miss a little bit of practice time and get rolling. We had good long run speed. Our fire off was pretty good. I’m pretty happy with this thing. I’m proud to keep it in one piece, but that’s a solid place to start from and we’ll keep marching forward.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We obviously have decent speed in our Freightliner Ford Mustang. I definitely overdrove turn one on my lap, but it was a solid lap and should put us in a good position for tomorrow. There’s a lot different going on with the package, so a lot of homework to do tonight even if we feel decent about our speed. There’s a lot to learn still. There may be different driving characteristics to the car with the different package and you definitely would expect that, but trying to figure out what to dial in and what we can dial in and what I have to adapt to in the car, so it’s a pretty busy day, pretty busy inside the car, but I’m confident we can continue to gain on it overnight.”
