Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Quaker State 400 Qualifying — EchoPark Speedway
Saturday, July 11, 2026
BLANEY EXTENDS FORD POLE-WINNING STREAK AT ECHOPARK SPEEDWAY
Ford Racing ran its streak of NASCAR Cup Series poles at EchoPark Speedway to seven after Ryan Blaney took the top spot this evening. It also continues a streak that has seen the Blue Oval sweep the front row in each of those qualifying sessions. Team Penske has led the way during this stretch as all three drivers – Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric – have qualified in the top 10 for each race. The organization has also had at least one driver start on the front row in each of the last seven events. Here’s a list of Ford’s qualifying success since 2023.
FORD POLE STREAK AT ECHOPARK
- Ford has won the last seven NASCAR Cup Series poles at AMS (Joey Logano twice, Aric Almirola, Michael McDowell twice, and Ryan Blaney twice).
- Ford has swept the front row in seven straight AMS qualifying sessions: Blaney/Logano (2026-2), Logano/Berry (2025-2), Blaney/Cindric (2025-1), McDowell/Blaney (2024-2), McDowell/Logano (2024-1), Almirola/Blaney (2023-2), Logano/Cindric (2023-1).
- Team Penske has had at least one driver start on the front row in each of the last six races (Blaney and Logano, 2026-2; Logano, 2025-2; Blaney and Cindric, 2025-1; Blaney, 2024-2; Logano, 2024-1; Blaney, 2023-2; Logano and Cindric, 2023-1)
Ford Qualifying Results:
1st – Ryan Blaney
2nd – Joey Logano
8th – Austin Cindric
10th – Brad Keselowski
13th – Chris Buescher
17th – Josh Berry
19th – Ryan Preece
21st – Todd Gilliland
34th – Zane Smith
36th – Noah Gragson
38th – Chad Finchum
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BodyArmor Flash I.V. Ford Mustang Dark Horse – POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN TAKE AWAY FROM TODAY THAT WE CAN PULL INTO TOMORROW TO PAINT THE PICTURE? “I’ve got nothing for you. It changes a lot in the draft and stuff like that tomorrow. Whether you’re leading or not it changes a ton – the bumps and just how your car handles. It’s just nice to have a good day. Honestly, every single other person on this 12 group other than me should be sitting up here because they’re the reason we won the pole today. They did a good job of building a fast car, but there’s not much you can take away from today to apply to tomorrow.”
THE CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERS DIDN’T QUALIFY WELL. IS IT A CASE WHERE ONCE THE RACE STARTS IT DOESN’T MATTER THAT MUCH? “I feel like we’ve seen that. I feel like they normally don’t qualify great at these speedways with just the build of their race car. Usually, that means they can probably be aggressive in the draft and get in the middle and get to the top and things like that, so I’m sure we’re gonna see them up there. You look at the spring race here and the Toyotas were really fast when it came race time. They handled really, really good, so it’s all about how you balance it out and hopefully our balance in the race is good enough to be able to either maintain the lead or, if we do get shuffled back, to be able to go forward. You don’t really know that until the race starts and you just hope you’ve planned to build your setup around handling pretty decent. Hopefully, we’ve done that as well. Hopefully, we have the best of both worlds.”
WHAT IS YOUR SECRET SAUCE FOR BEING THE ONLY FORD WITH ALL THE TOYOTAS AND CHEVYS? “We already have another one starting outside of me, so that part is good to have a Penske front row. I think the Fords always do a pretty good job of working together trying to find each other. I know we try to do the best job that we can and between myself, Austin and Joey and Josh Berry trying to find each other and trying to work well with each other. And then we work good with the other Fords as well, so hopefully we’ll be able to get organized at some point, but it’s nice that Joey and I are starting up there in the front. We’ll try to organize the start of the race the best we can to figure out what’s the best way to get together quick, but it’s nice to have some friends around.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS OF GETTING BACK TO THE FRONT ROW AFTER CINDRIC’S RUN? “No, I didn’t see his lap. I knew what I ran the first round. I didn’t even know what Joey ran the second round. They didn’t tell me. I was just hoping we would run about the same. Sometimes you see that. It’s kind of weird. Sometimes you see you’re a little bit off from your first run and some of that has to do with does the wind kind of do some funky stuff? Did you get your water temp cooled down enough? All of that stuff I don’t really have a good answer of why you sometimes see a shift with what happened with the 2 in speed, but I was just hoping we ran the same time and I actually think we picked up a little bit, so we were fortunate there.”
HOW WORRIED ARE YOU ABOUT A GREEN FLAG PIT STOP TOMORROW? “We practiced it after qualifying, like after my lap the second round I did a pit road, I did a hot pit road entry and then you run your lights through the corner and then you back it down. That’s really our one shot at it and then it changes in the draft. As you’re going way faster you kind of have to adjust your brake markers, so I’d rather have it this way than the other way. If the pit entry was off of four, it would be really sketchy. That’s why it’s there, and we’ve seen a couple incidents getting on to pit road, but I hope everyone has had enough reps with it now to where it’s a little bit more less chaotic I guess you could say. More or less chaotic is probably not a phrase, but a little bit less chaotic I think than past.”
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE CHRIS BUESCHER BILLBOARD? “No. They’ve got billboards? That’s cool.”
IT’S A CONTINUING PRANK BETWEEN PREECE AND BUESCHER. THAT USED TO HAPPEN A LOT YEARS AGO WITH JOKES ON EACH OTHER BUT WE DON’T HEAR A LOT ABOUT THAT ANYMORE. IS IT STILL AROUND? “I think it’s just everyone is a little different in their ways. That’s a pretty good one with the billboard stuff. That’s funny. Taking ads out for his teammate. That’s good. I don’t know. It’s more kind of just if I prank someone I don’t really put it on social media or anything like that. I’m just not that way, but I don’t know. I haven’t really done much pranking here. You may have sparked a fire in me now. I might have to start doing it to Darrell or Chase or someone I’m good friend with – or maybe someone I don’t like. That would be fun.”
BULLPEN QUESTION: WHAT LEVEL OF TIRE WEAR IS TO BE EXPECTED AS THIS SURFACE CONTINUES TO EVOLVE? “It gets slicker and slicker every time we come back. Which is good because I think that what makes this place [EchoPark] have a lot of character. The first year we came here in 2022 when [EchoPark] was brand new pavement it was really gripped up, now you’re actually having to think about handling in the racecar. Which has become a huge emphasis in meeting through the week is ‘ok how trimmed out do we want to be, do we want to go the trimmed route or the downforce route, what’s the weather going to be like that day’ that adds this factor so you got your hands full and someone just spun out in qualifying which you see every now and then and you just never know. I think it puts on a great race, I know the fans really enjoy this place, gosh it’s exhausting as a driver mentally to run around this place during the race, but it puts on a heck of a race”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse – IS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT IN YOUR APPROACH TO ECHOPARK THIS TIME AROUND? “Yes and no, I think for us we’ve obviously had fast cars in races past. This track continually changes and evolves with age but also as people understand the unique style this track provides. I think there is a constant evolution in the drivers and a constant evolution in the conditions of your racing. So I think the first two stages is a warning phase for a lot of folks, but the track goes through a big transition as well. It’s [EchoPark] a pretty dynamic racetrack and that’ll be exciting.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN TAKE AWAY FROM TODAY VERSUS LAST YEAR AT THIS RACE OR FEBRUARY? “Yeah, it’s a lot hotter than February. Outside of that, it’s really windy with a whole bunch of fronts blowing in and out. Those dynamics make a difference in how the cars race and what you see. I don’t know if you can necessarily see them on camera if you’re watching the race on TV, but they do matter. So I expect the race to be more difficult than the spring race with respect to side-by-side and so forth with the car sliding around.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s a good starting spot, but I always say it’s just a starting spot. We’ve got a lot of racing to do between now and the end of this thing. The good news is the Hunt Brothers Pizza Mustang is fast and that speed you usually see in qualifying will show up in the race, so it’s nice to have a fast car. You can manipulate the field a little bit and make some moves work that you typically can’t. I’m proud to see the speed that is there. The handling seemed to be fine in qualifying, but obviously in the pack you’re going faster tomorrow, so it might be a little bit different. Hopefully, we’ve got some handling built in it. I assume we will and we’ll go racing and see if we can win one.” DO YOU FEEL THIS IS A PLACE YOU CAN GET BACK ON THE LOGANO TRACK? “Yes and no. I mean, yes from a speed perspective and execution I feel like our team can handle these speedway really well, but with that said it’s a speedway. I think everyone remembers what happened here last fall, so there’s no guarantee you’ll see the end of it. Hopefully, if you’re up towards the front you have a good enough car that even if you were to take points and set yourself back – if one of those scenarios happens – you still can get your way back up there, hopefully, with a good handling car, too. Like I said the speed is there and that’s half the battle. We know we have that.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Ruedebusch Development & Construction Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THOUGHTS ABOUT ADVANCING TO THE NEXT ROUND OF THE “IN-SEASON CHALLENGE? “Now that we’re at this point with only eight drivers we’re starting to look at it and starting to pay attention to it. It’s definitely cool to see my team paying attention to it. You know it gives us a little bit of a battle to go after, it’s not like we’re competing for wins week in and week out – it’s where we want to be, but we’re not there yet – so, yeah, I think it’s really cool to see my team push that little bit harder — that they got in there to give it their all, and it’s working out so far.” WHAT LEVEL OF TIRE WEAR IS TO BE EXPECTED AS THIS SURFACE CONTINUES TO EVOLVE? I think it’s going to be very interesting over the next couple years, even the next five or 10 years. I do think there is still a little bit of handling that the teams can put into the car, and right now it’s just an extreme balance of ‘you know how much drag to take off versus obviously you want to race really well’, that when the big money comes out. So, I think you’ll continue to see cars drive better as the track ages, and you’ll almost see racing like this for the next five years, but we saw the old surface here at Atlanta it will probably eventually get back to that you would assume. It’s just going to wear out little by little to where there is going to be a point where it’s always going to see super fast and super high-banked, but you might even see a little more gaping in the cars which I don’t think will be a bad thing, I think it’ll be really cool when it gets to that point.”
