Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Brickyard 400 — Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Ford Finishing Results:
3rd – Joey Logano
6th – Brad Keselowski
7th – Josh Berry
8th – Ryan Preece
11th – Chris Buescher
14th – Austin Cindric
15th – Zane Smith
22nd – Noah Gragson
24th – Todd Gilliland
26th – Ryan Blaney
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Grillo’s Pickles Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN $1 MILLION? “It feels really good. Obviously, we wish we ran a little bit better than 24th today, but we did what we had to do. Really, that was the name of our game all the way throughout this challenge we just barely skated by. We were obviously a bit lucky, but we still stuck out these races. We did the best we could and luckily it was good enough, just barely every single round. It’s a big prize. One million dollars going to the team. That’s just massive. Our team deserves it. They all ramped up and worked extremely hard, so I’m just super proud of everyone for what they’ve done. Hopefully, we can keep building on this and the intensity that we’re able to achieve.” WHEN BLANEY GOT IN THE ACCIDENT WERE YOU AWARE OF WHAT WAS GOING ON? “Oh, yeah. I saw the bright yellow spinning up top, and I thought that was at least a chance for us. I was very surprised how fast he still was after that. He was right on my bumper. There was one car in between us, but fairly close for the last 25 laps or so. It was nerve racking for sure, but it’s great to feel those nerves racing for something meaningful and it was cool. I think my team deserves this, for sure.” THERE ARE NOW TWO DAVIDS IN THE FAMILY. YOUR DAD AND THIS DAVID BEAT GOLIATH. “Yeah, that’s true. I always remember seeing those things when my dad and when he and David Ragan finished first and second. That was the biggest David vs. Goliath and they were both named David, so I just saw that so much growing up. Eventually, we want to be the Goliath and we want to be the guy that is winning and racing up front, but until we’re there, we’ve got to capitalize on every opportunity and I think we did just that today.” $1 MILLION AND A NEW CONTRACT ALL IN JULY. HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU RIGHT NOW? “Life is good as Todd Gilliland right now. There’s weeks and months and years in this series that will beat you down, so you just really have to enjoy the good times. We’re very lucky to do what we get to do and it’s all I really ever wanted to do since I was a kid, so hopefully we can keep building on it. That’s the biggest thing to me is my team found another level within themselves even if it didn’t necessarily show on the racetrack. I think their intensity is up there, and I think it’s gonna be better for all of us going forward.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We broke up the Toyotas, so that’s good, but we just couldn’t get there. I was faster than them, but I got three car lengths back and that was it. I lost the air and that was it. I couldn’t go fast anymore. I needed track position. Track position won the race. You had to be on the front row there and we were one row back, but, overall, I’m proud of what Paul and Joe and everyone on the team was able to do by giving us a really fast race car again. We’ve just got to qualify better and start towards the front. We missed it on Saturday and you start 19th and you get one or two, but everyone ran the same strategy all day, so there wasn’t much opportunity there. We got to where we had a shot at it, but not good enough.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Body Guard by Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I thought we had a solid day. We put ourselves in position to have a top 10 day and ended up sixth. We had a lot of good restarts and pretty good strategy, but that’s about all the speed we had.” THE LAST TWO RESTARTS WERE INTENSE. HOW DID THOSE GO FOR YOU? “It’s your last chance to make something of the race and once you get about a lap in, there’s no passing so you’ve got to make hay.” ALL THREE RFK TEAMS RAN WELL TODAY AND FINISHED IN THE TOP 11. “We had three solid days for our RFK cars, which was good. Preece caught a little bit of a break there with getting the yellow at the right time and maximized his day, and I felt like we were just solid all day.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 PPG Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a really good day. I thought we did a really good job. We struggled Friday. I thought the guys did a really good job overnight for qualifying. I know we didn’t qualify like we wanted, but we had a super early draw and felt better about the car than what we qualified and I think we just executed a really good race. It wasn’t perfect, but we had some really good restarts the second half of the race and made some progress, and we had some really good long run pace. Overall, it was a really solid day that we needed. I’m just happy to finally get a good finish.” HOW DOES THIS FEEL TO FINALLY GET A FINISH LIKE THIS WHERE NOTHING GOES WRONG? “It’s kind of like what I said at North Wilkesboro, it’s hard to explain the amount of stuff that’s worked against us at times this year. Finally, today we executed a solid race and didn’t have anything thrown at us to take us out of it, and also we had a really good Ford Mustang. That’s a big part of it, too. The car was really solid and that makes the restarts better, your pace throughout the run is obviously way better and just a really solid day.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Thornton’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We’ve got a lot of work to do from our group to contend for wins, but I’m happy. Derrick really got the strategy right on that one and we just had to maintain.”
