CHARLOTTE 1
Friday, May 22 — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, May 24– NASCAR Cup Series, 6 p.m. ET (PRIME)
The annual Memorial Day Weekend tradition continues this year as NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600, headlines the stock car calendar at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks off the action on Friday night in a race that Ben Rhodes won in 2023 and concludes with the Cup Series on Sunday night in an event that has seen Ford drivers Brad Keselowski (2020) and Ryan Blaney (2023) go to Victory Lane in recent years.
MULTIPLE FORD 600 WINNERS
Only two drivers have won the Coca-Cola 600 more than once with Ford, but two current drivers have an opportunity to add their name to that list. NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen was the first driver to win multiple 600 events, doing in 1963 and 1965 while Jeff Burton joined him after victories in 1999 and 2001. Ryan Blaney (2023) and Brad Keselowski (2020) are the two eligible drivers who can join them on Sunday.
RFK TRIO IN CHASE POSITIONS
When Sunday’s scheduled Coca-Cola 600 ends, it will mark the halfway point of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season. The RFK Racing trio of Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece all find themselves in Chase positions at the moment. Buescher, on the strength of six top-10 finishes, is fifth in the overall standings while Keselowski is ninth and Preece, winner of the Clash at Bowman Gray, is 13th. That makes them the only multi-car organization to have all of its drivers currently in the field.
CINDRIC RUNNING TOP 10
Austin Cindric goes into Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 with a great deal of momentum that included being Ford Racing’s top finisher in each of the last two races. Cindric finished sixth in last weekend’s All-Star Race after running ninth the previous week at Watkins Glen International. Overall, Cindric has two top-10 finishes in the last three series points races, which has allowed him to go from 17th to 15th in the standings.
SITTING ON 749
The next Ford win will be its 750th all-time in NASCAR’s top series. Ned Jarrett is Ford’s win leader with 43 while Bill Elliott is second with 40. Shirtless Jimmy Florian scored the Blue Oval’s first series victory when he upset the likes of Lee Petty, Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly at Dayton Speedway on June 25, 1950. Florian earned his nickname after getting out of his 1950 flathead Ford without a shirt. Overall, 91 drivers have won at least one series race with Ford, including notable drivers Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, A.J. Foyt, Richard Petty, and Dale Earnhardt.
NOAH GRAGSON: “The race doesn’t seem too long when your car is fast and it’s good and the effort level is down. It’s those days when the thing drives terrible and you’re just fighting demons in that thing. When it just drives evil, that’s when you’ve got your hands full and the effort level is through the roof and that’s when you definitely burn a lot more calories. It’s a long race. Hydration is key. We also got pretty lucky last year with weather. It was maybe only 70 degrees for that race, so I’m hoping we can maybe have another year like that, but it could be one of those races where it’s really hot, too. We’ll see.”
RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS GOOD FOR BLANEY
Ryan Blaney needed an extra day, but he took full advantage in winning the Coca-Cola 600 in 2023. Blaney took the checkered flag first in an event that was delayed due to rain and snapped a 59-race winless streak in the process. He led a race-high 163 laps, including the final 26 after passing WIlliam Byron on lap 375, and scored top-five points in all four stages. Overall, Ford had a strong night as five drivers combined to lead 201-of-400 laps.
KESELOWSKI ADDS ANOTHER JEWEL
Brad Keselowski became the first Ford driver since Mark Martin in 2002 to win the Coca-Cola 600 when he held off Jimmie Johnson in an overtime finish to take the checkered flag in 2020. The race went five laps past the advertised distance and ended with Keselowski adding another crown jewel victory with Ford to go with his wins in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis (2018) and Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (2018).
THREE IN THE TOP FIVE
The top five of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings has a distinct Ford Racing flair with three F-150 drivers currently holding down spots. The Front Row Motorsports tandem of Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith lead the way in second and third, respectively, while ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski is fifth. Majeski moved up two spots in the standings after a second-place finish last weekend in Dover while Riggs flip-flopped positions with Smith thanks to a third-place result. Ben Rhodes (seventh) and Jake Garcia (eighth) are also in the overall top 10, giving Ford Racing five drivers in playoff positions.
RHODES POSTS A FORD FIRST
Ben Rhodes provided Ford with its first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2023 when he passed Carson Hocevar and led the final 25 laps. For Rhodes, it marked the only win during his championship-winning season and seventh of his career. The race was a three-way battle between Rhodes, Hocevar and Corey Heim, who combined to lead all but five of the 134 circuits.
FORD’S COCA-COLA 600 WINNERS
1962 – Nelson Stacy
1963 – Fred Lorenzen
1965 – Fred Lorenzeon
1970 – Donnie Allison
1982 – Neil Bonnett
1987 – Kyle Petty
1991 – Davey Allison
1996 – Dale Jarrett
1999 – Jeff Burton
2000 – Matt Kenseth
2001 – Jeff Burton
2002 – Mark Martin
2020 – Brad Keselowski
2023 – Ryan Blaney
FORD NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES WINNERS AT CHARLOTTE OVAL
2023 – Ben Rhodes
The Ford Mustang is the world’s best selling sports car and one of its 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, 26 Mustang race cars are scheduled to race across all disciplines. Learn more about Mustang at www.FordRacing.com .
