Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Window World 450 Qualifying — North Wilkesboro Speedway
Saturday, July 18, 2026
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang Dark Horse, will start from the pole in tomorrow’s Window World 450 after NASCAR Cup Series qualifying was postponed due to rain. Blaney is coming off his second victory of the year last week at EchoPark Speedway and held a press conference to talk about returning to North Wilkesboro Speedway.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON THIS WEEKEND? “A great lap (laughing). I look forward to it. I’ve enjoyed coming here the last few years for the All-Star Race and I was excited when they announced there was gonna be a points race here because I feel like this place has done a really good job of not only revitalizing it, the facilities, but they do a really good job of fan experiences and it puts on a really good race, too. It’s a long race, for sure tomorrow night – 450 laps is a long way, but it’s gonna be a good show, so I’m excited and I think it’s very well deserving of a points race.”
WHAT DOES THIS TRACK COMPARE TO AS FAR AS HOW YOU DRIVE IT? “Three and four is kind of a shorter radius one and two at Phoenix, kind of similaresque banking. It’s a little bit flatter than one and two, and you can kind of search around up there a good bit. One and two is kind of unique in its own way. It’s like a big diamond corner, but like in the Truck race and races past, you’ve seen guys be able to run the very bottom of one and two here, which has been a good lane to open up. So, one and two I think are pretty unique in itself, but three and four reminds me a lot of a Phoenix one and two, but just a little bit shorter distance.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE SUCCESS YOU HAD THERE WILL CARRY OVER TO HERE? “I hope so. You don’t know until we get out there for practice and see where the speed is at. This is the first short track we’ve had in a while, so I’m looking forward to seeing where that speed is. Hopefully, we’ve carried it over from what we were in the past at short tracks from Bristol and Phoenix, Martinsville, things like that. I’m looking forward to seeing what we have for this weekend and I hope that speed is what we’re accustomed to, but we’ll find out. You never know.”
DRIVERS FEEL ATTRITION WILL BE PART OF THE RACE TOMORROW. DO YOU HAVE A SENSE FOR HOW THAT ATTRITION WILL HAPPEN? “Yeah, I definitely think attrition is a good word for it. Mechanical maybe, a little bit. You’re kind of on the brakes pretty decent at this place, so I’m curious to see how the brakes last. What is everyone’s brake package setup coming in here. We want to run lighter weight stuff, but you might sacrifice a little bit of durability, and then it’s the first race with the new bumper structure, and there’s nothing behind that bumper. I mean, all the foam is gone. It’s just body work, so they’re gonna be pretty flimsy, for sure. I was fortunate in the previous generation car that that was what it was. You had to be really, really careful with the nose and the right side and stuff like that, so I feel like I have some experience on you have to really be mindful of that stuff. Some guys, I think, who have only driven this car, they didn’t get to experience that in the other car, but that stuff is gonna be flimsy, so you’re really gonna have to be careful on stack ups, laying the bumper to somebody, but I think just the length of the race and the pace that this place is – it’s not a slow racetrack. It’s really fast, kind of a physically-demanding racetrack, and while it’s a night race it’s gonna be fairly warm, so I think you’re gonna have some people really physically having to dig down deep at the end of this thing because you’re gonna be worn out, for sure.”
IN 2011 YOU WON A PASS SERIES HEAT RACE HERE. YOU’VE SEEN THIS TRACK GO THROUGH A LOT, SO LOOKING BACK TO THEN WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WHAT’S HAPPENED HERE? “I remember that weekend. That was a big weekend because that was the first time anything ran on this place for a long time, and they brought some late models there with the PASS Series. I remember winning that heat race. I remember, I think, Chase Elliott won the race and they threw him out after the race. They failed tech and I think Bill said ‘we’re never racing this series again,’ which was funny. I think it’s come a long ways. It’s amazing to see what this place is now and that it has Truck races on it, Cup races, the CARS Tour races, late model races yesterday were great. I think it’s just becoming a huge staple of this area again, as it should be, because it has so much history and so much meaning to people that came here in the nineties and before that, so 15 years ago I never would have thought I’d be here in general, but I never would have thought we’d be back to this place and it’s doing as well as it is. Props to everybody who made this racetrack possible – bringing it back.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GOING TO INDIANAPOLIS NEXT WEEK? “That place has always been special in general, let alone in our organization. When you sign up to race for Mr. Penske, you know that that’s an important place to him. It’s not talked about in the shop, it’s just known, and now that he’s owned the speedway for the last handful of years it’s even more – I wouldn’t say pressure to win there, but it’s more of a known in our building that if you can win at the bosses track, that means a lot to him that got him into racing when his dad took him there when he was a kid. You just know the meaning behind that place to him, and then obviously as a driver you want to put your name on there, so a big weekend. I hope we can deliver for him. We’ve got to catch up to the Indy Car guys, who are kicking our butt at that place on their track record at the Indy 500, so, hopefully, we have something for them next weekend. It would be the coolest thing to share a Victory Lane moment and kiss the bricks with Roger. That would be a heck of an experience.”
YOU RODE THE MOTORCYCLE YOU WON LAST WEEK ON THE TRACK AFTERWARDS. HOW WAS THAT? “I took a couple laps around on that Harley. It was sitting in Victory Lane. I forgot that was part of the trophy and they told me that and I was like, ‘Well, I’d like to take it for a couple laps.’ When am I ever gonna get an experience like this ever again? So, I took it for a couple laps, cruised around there, and then went into turn one on my last lap and the police lit me up. They turned their sirens on and I thought I was in big trouble for a little bit, and I think they thought there was a fan riding around the racetrack on their bike, and then they kind of pulled up behind me and then they turned their lights off and went away. I think they realized this wasn’t a fan riding their stuff around, but the blue lights were flashing. It’s never a fun thing to see whether you’re in your car or on a bike at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but it was a fun experience though.”
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF SEPARATING FROM THE OTHER FORDS RIGHT NOW? “Jonathan Hassler. Jonathan is an amazing crew chief. He’s an amazing leader on our group and he’s always finding ways to be better and better every week, so it’s just fun to drive his race cars. It’s fun to work with him through areas where we want to improve and what are the little things that he and I can do better as a group and as a driver/crew chief combination to maximize performance week in and week out. He’s a huge part of it and I have him to thank for driving really fast race cars. It’s a lot of fun to drive his cars, so I’d say he’s the main factor in it.”
YOU ARE BATTLING CHRISTOPHER BELL IN THE SEMI-FINAL OF THE IN-SEASON CHALLENGE TOMORROW. HOW MUCH ATTENTION OR FOCUS WILL BE ON THE 20? “I feel like that’s gonna be a really heck of a battle between me and Christopher this weekend. They run really good on short tracks. We have a history of running really good on short tracks. He won the All-Star Race here last year, so he’s gonna be really tough competition. That’s gonna be a heck of a battle. I wouldn’t say through the race during the In-Season Challenge that we’ve been a part of I have really focused too much on who I’m running. I see who we’re up against during the week and then I just try to go focus on my job during the race. I haven’t really been in situations like coming down to the end of the race and we’re running eighth and the other guy is running seventh, then maybe I would think about it, but I look at it once and then just try to go win the race and that stuff takes care of itself. It’s been fun to be a part of it, that’s for sure. I got knocked out after Round 1 last year, so it’s been kind of fun to go through the bracket and see who you’re up against through the week and then go do your deal. It’s nice to be a part of it. It’s really neat. I wasn’t really part of it last year, but I enjoyed watching how it played out because motorsports isn’t a one v one type thing like a March Madness or other sports, so I think it’s cool that they’ve implemented this in our sport. Like I said, it’s gonna be a heck of a battle for sure between he and I this weekend.”
DO YOU ENVISION TRACK POSITION BEING EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TOMORROW NIGHT OR WILL THERE BE A LOT OF MOVEMENT THROUGHOUT THE FIELD? “Yeah, I hope so. I hope there’s a lot of movement with comers and goers, fall off, stuff like that. I know in the year’s past, the last couple of years with the All-Star Race, it’s been kind of hard to come through the field and tires don’t really fall off a ton. I will say though that Goodyear has been doing a great job of trying to get softer and softer and softer to where that’s a big deal if you abuse your stuff. This place just isn’t super rough. The surface is really smooth, so it’s hard to get that tire wear, but I think it being a longer race, longer runs, like full tire runs, fuel runs, I think you’re hopefully gonna have guys start to struggle towards the end of these runs. I think the distance of the race and the work Goodyear has been doing, I’m hopeful that it will really show a lot of tire management comers and goers, so we’ll see.”
