Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Cook Out 400 Qualifying — Richmond Raceway
Friday, August 14, 2026
BLANEY CONTINUES POLE HOT STREAK BY TAKING TOP SPOT AT RICHMOND RACEWAY
- Ryan Blaney won the pole for tomorrow night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway.
- The pole is Blaney’s fourth of the season and second straight after taking the top spot last week in Iowa.
- This will also be the fourth time in the last five Cup races that Blaney will start from the pole, including at North Wilkesboro Speedway where qualifying was rained out.
- Blaney’s poles this year include: Bristol, Atlanta 2, Iowa and Richmond.
- Ford also had five drivers qualify in the Top 10.
Ford Qualifying Results:
1st – Ryan Blaney
3rd – Josh Berry
6th – Ryan Preece
9th – Brad Keselowski
10th – Joey Logano
19th – Chris Buescher
23rd – Austin Cindric
24th – Zane Smith
27th – Todd Gilliland
35th – Noah Gragson
36th – Josh Bilicki
RYAN BLANEY POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BODYARMOR FLASH I.V. Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a good lap. I think the last seven of us maybe kind of caught a little cloud and that was kind of that cloud for rolling in and helping the last handful of us out. Overall, it was a decent lap. I hit my marks not too bad and was able to get the pole, so I’m really proud of the effort. The last couple of weeks in qualifying has been really good, so hopefully it transfers over to tomorrow night.”
ANY REASON YOU’RE HAVING THIS GREAT STRETCH OF QUALIFYING? “I don’t know. I wouldn’t specify myself as a very good qualifier. For a little bit I struggled in qualifying, just not really able to find the one-lap speed and kind of doing the wrong things behind the wheel, but I think Jonathan and I have worked through how we can get that better and me just thinking of how do you adjust from end of practice race mindset to qualifying. Here it’s super tough because your last lap in practice to qualifying, you’re about to qualify three seconds faster than what you just ran, so it’s how do you mentally switch over to that and figure out how to do it in one lap because the second lap today wasn’t gonna do it. Jonathan has done a good job of just trying to work through on how do we get better and it’s been fun to work through that.”
YOU HAD THE KYLE TRIBUTE HELMET LAST WEEK AND THIS WEEK TY GIBBS ANNOUNCED AN M&M PAINT SCHEME AT BRISTOL. WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION AND WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE LIKE TO RACE AGAINST THAT SCHEME AGAIN? “Yeah, I did see that. I did see Ty was running and M&M scheme at Bristol and I think that’s great. It looked like it’s the base scheme, but then there’s a collage on it and I bet it’s gonna have a bunch of unique moments. We’ve done that at Penske before, kind of the history of Penske Racing and it’s gonna be the history of Kyle. It’s gonna be pretty eye-opening to see and M&M’s car back on the track and even in the 54 number. He ran the M&M’s 54 for a little bit on the Nationwide side. I think it’s good that the tracks and the sport and the teams and the drivers are continuing to do things to remember Kyle and honor the Busch family and be as respectful as we can. In the unfortunate, obviously, circumstances we don’t want to have to have paid tribute to Kyle Busch, but I think this is a really good way for the sport to show their respect to him and his whole family.”
STEVE O’DONNELL HAS REFERRED TO NASCAR AS A BAD ASS SPORT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU? “I don’t know. He’s not lying. Motorsports in general are pretty bad ass and unbelievable, and I think NASCAR – and I’m going to be biased here – I think NASCAR creates the best racing on the planet. I’m gonna say that because I do believe it, personally. So I just think what makes it so bad ass is like the drivers and the teams always striving to be better and faster and how do you kind of work around that and not having any kind of fear when you’re trying to control something that’s really hard to control. That’s pretty tough. It’s the same as no matter when in history, you go back to the automobile starting. The first question was probably, ‘How do we turn it on?’ And the second one is, ‘Can we go faster?’ You’re just always trying to push to find speed and the limit and that comes to drivers and teams and manufacturers and engineers, so I just think it’s bad ass that the teams doing what they do, all drivers being able to kind of wrangle this machine that’s supposed to be out of control and how do you control it as much as you can without stepping over and busting your ass. I’m not going to pump myself up because I’m a driver right now, but, yes, growing up I thought all the drivers I watched growing up when I my I was watching my dad race and stuff, those guys were just larger than life because they could do something that not many people could do and that’s a pretty cool thing.”
YOU WOULDN’T CONSIDER YOURSELF BAD ASS AND PUT YOURSELF IN THAT CATEGORY? “No. That’s pretentious if you call yourself that.”
THE LAST TIME THE POLE SITTER WON THE RACE HERE IS 2016. DENNY HAMLIN SAYS IT’S NOT A HUGE SIGN AS TO WHO SHOULD BE THE FAVORITE, BUT HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES? “Yeah, I think Denny’s comments are spot-on. This place is such a unique racetrack as far as the separation from qualifying to race pace and how all of that plays out seems to be very widespread, as opposed to other tracks I feel like we go, where some guys you can kind of pick out eight or nine guys who qualify up top are probably gonna be the top eight or nine guys the rest of the race. But here, with the tire fall off being so vast, one lap is so much different here than a 50-70 lap run, so you hope you have both. I’ve been on either side of it. I’ve qualified really well here and just tank in the race. I’ve been on the coming from behind side and I feel like my practice we had not great fire off speed early in the run, but I felt like my long run pace was pretty good and it’s just nice that we made good adjustments to make one lap and get faster than my one-lap pace in race practice. It ebbs and flows here. There are a lot of comers and goes and that’s the beauty of this place with the big tire fall off.”
WHAT ARE YOU GOING THROUGH INSIDE THE CAR WHEN YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A 50-60 LAP RUN? “It feels like an eternity. Fifty laps around here feels like 200 at another place just because I don’t think, and me growing up and watching this racetrack and then when I got to drive this racetrack for the first time a long time ago, I couldn’t believe how slow it feels behind the wheel, like 30-plus laps into the run you feel like you’re creeping around the racetrack. But where it gives you a little bit of false confidence, it’s like, ‘I can get in there a little bit harder,’ and the next thing you know you’re up the track and there’s so little grip. There are some places you go where you can slip a tire and get away with it and it doesn’t cost you a ton, but here it’s like every little slip of the tire it kills your tires for just that much quicker. So, it just feels like you’re crawling around that as a driver. It’s easy to get false confidence of like, ‘I can get a little bit more,’ but then you’re just gonna pay the penalty a lot. So you really have to tell yourself to be patient and you almost can’t go slow enough, I guess is the deal. A lot of Days of Thunder. Like when they tested his way, my way. It’s kind of like that. That little scene there, that kind of encumbers Richmond really well.”
IS THIS TRACK A DARLINGTON MINDSET WITH RACING THE RACETRACK? “They’re very similar in ways. They’re very different in ways. I feel like this place really is a race the racetrack type of place, but it’s harder here because you’re kind of on top of cars a little bit more. At Darlington, it’s a little bit bigger and gets a little bit more spread out, but it’s a super race the racetrack. It’s really easy to start trying harder if you’re running a guy down and needing to pass him. It goes back to what I was saying earlier, then you really start paying the penalty. I’ve always just tried to keep in mind here, no matter if I’m leading or if I’m 20th or whatever, battling somebody, like, ‘Don’t overstep and just run your own race.’ Darlington is kind of the same way, but at Darlington your wiggle room is way smaller. If you miss, you’re hitting the fence pretty hard, but, yes, the mindset, I think, is very similar as far as just race the racetrack and try not to get too caught up in battling somebody or something like that.”
HOW MUCH OF THIS WAS STUDYING OR LEANING ON THE TEAMMATES? “Both. I think Joey has been one of the best guys here for a long time, no matter what car it was. Brad, I feel like, also was one of the best guys here, so I got to learn from those two guys and try to soak up a bunch of – whether it was watching some stuff or just talking to them and kind of picking their brain. Denny is really solid here. I try to watch a little bit of Denny’s stuff, but, honestly, just recently talking to Joey and trying to figure out, ‘Hey, what do you think going into this place? What’s your mindset?’ Just trying to pick that apart and then trying to process it yourself and how are you going to react to it, and Jonathan has been a huge key of trying to get the car to where me and it are friendly. Everyone is different. We’ve tried throwing Joey’s setup in it and I just can’t drive it as good as him, so he’s done a really good job of tinkering on things over the last handful of years of trying to get better and understanding what I need, so it’s been fun to work that out, but Joey has been a huge help for me at this place.”
(BLANEY BULLPEN QUESTION) WHEN DO YOU START LOOKING FORWARD AND AHEAD TO THE CHASE AS OPPOSED TO THE NEXT THREE TRYING TO POSITION YOURSELF? “Really, top of our mind is how do we get to second in points? It’s a long reach. A lot of things are gonna have to go our way to get to first, so I think the biggest thing that we’ve been thinking about is how do we race with the 54? How do we race with the 45 to try to be seeded second, as high as possible because every point is gonna matter? That’s really top of our mind. We haven’t even thought about the Chase yet just because we’ve got our own mini battle going on.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/Grab Kleenex Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU LIKE RACING AT NIGHT HERE IN RICHMOND? “I’m a big fan of Saturday night racing and night racing in general, so, to me, I love it. I think the cars look awesome under the lights. It’s easier on our fans when they can be up there and be in the evening once the sun has given up on us a little bit. It just makes it a little nicer experience from that side of things. Selfishly, it’s nicer in the car too. It’s still gonna be a warm one here, but there’s something to it. It reminds you of short track racing growing up and what you went into on the weekends. You get to the racetrack around five or six o’clock and go through practice and qualifying real quick and then go into that Saturday night race.” HOW DO YOU FEEL COMING BACK TO A TRACK YOU’VE WON AT? “It’s nice to come back to a track we’ve been able to figure out in the past and be really strong here. We talk about our sport and maybe a flaw of it is it’s kind of all about what you’ve done for me recently. We kind of live in the previous week and the one directly ahead of us and last week, for a track that has a lot of similarities to this one, was not a great week for us. It was a great job from a strategy standpoint and making some aggressive race calls. The team did a great job to stick it out, but, ultimately, it’s not where we thought we needed to be. We’ve made some big changes for this one. I feel good about that, so we’re ready to get on track and see what it’s gonna look like.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Confidence is definitely way better than where it was, especially right now. This group of tracks – Iowa last week, Richmond, arguably, is our best racetrack. Maybe some would argue Wilkesboro right now, but I would say Richmond we’re equally as good. I’m excited about getting here. We’ve had a lot of adversity we’ve overcome here at Richmond over the last four races where something has happened, where we’ve been in position or fast enough to win – whether it’s starting in the back last year, we got a flat tire in the race and we got a flat tire in practice. It was just a mess, but we had speed to do it. I’m looking forward to hopefully having a smooth weekend and keep crawling our way to the top 10 in points. That’s what our goal is here in the next three weeks. I still think we can do it, so we’ll keep scratching and clawing.” THIS IS THE FIRST SATURDAY NIGHT POINTS RACE OF THE YEAR. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE OF THESE? “I don’t have an opinion. My opinion is whatever is best for the sport is what I’m gonna do. If the sport is better at night, then we’ll do that. If it’s better for TV ratings during the day, then we’ll do that. I don’t care.” YOU HAVE COME OUT OF A PRETTY BIG HOLE AT A GOOD TIME. “Yeah. I think we’re getting closer to say we’re a championship threat, and I wouldn’t have said that a month ago. We were just trying to make the Chase. We haven’t clinched our spot by no means, either. It’s not like we’re in a comfortable spot, but I do think if we can get ourselves a little closer up there toward the top 10 in points, and it seems like we’re getting better on mile-and-a-halves as well. Things are starting to come together. It’s all making sense and we’ve shown in the past that if we can just be in the game long enough, we can make something happen. We’re not out yet.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT IS THE APPROACH FOR YOU HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND? “It was a good event for us last year. It’s a track I’ve generally enjoyed going to and I also feel like, for the most part, things can always change. You get a caution in the middle of the pit window and throws it all out, but it’s usually a track where you kind of grind it out and earn whatever you get, whether that’s good or bad. I’m looking forward to tomorrow night and keep working on our Quaker State/Menards Ford Mustang to try and have a good run.” WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT RACES? “I like the fact that I’m probably gonna be home on Sunday so I can watch the Indy Car race. From that standpoint, it kind of throws the schedule a bit different, but, past that, I’m all for it.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Long John Silver’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE THOSE DISCUSSIONS LIKE WHEN IT COMES TO TAKING THE NEXT STEP? “It’s a lot of different discussions with our group internally with what the next step looks like. To be racing in the Cup Series is a privilege and I’m very grateful to continue having the opportunity to race in the Cup Series next year and beyond. I think the belief is there with our group, it’s just finding what works and what doesn’t work and just trying to show up to the racetrack with what we need, so there are a lot of conversations, but nothing feels better than when you can put some ink on paper and takes a lot of weight off your shoulders as a driver selfishly speaking just because you’re doing everything you can to keep the job. It’s a cut throat series and definitely a privilege to be racing here and I’m very grateful to do it next year and on into the future. Everybody at Ford Racing has been great. We’ve got a lot of great partners as well with Rush Truck Centers, so I think everybody is excited and we all believe in each other, it’s just putting everything together to make it work.
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “There are still a lot of cars left to go. I feel like I hit a really good lap, but I feel like it’s gonna take a high 30 to a low 40 to have the pole, so I guess we’ll see. The track is gonna keep getting faster over the next 30 minutes and I think we’re about halfway through. I think we’ll hold up for a top 15, but I guess we’ll see.” THIS IS THE SECOND RACE WITH THE BUMPER HAVING LESS SUPPORT. DO YOU FEEL IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO MOVE SOMEONE WITHOUT DESTROYING THE FRONT OF THE CAR? “I haven’t seen that yet. I think you can definitely make contact without hurting the car – not as hard a contact as you made before, but you can definitely make contact. The cars are just really hard to move with the big rear tire on them, but you take a track like this, we saw people spin out on their own in practice and we almost never see that with this car, so the cars are really on edge, and I think it’s more a function of how on edge the cars are than it is the strength of the bumpers.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse – “Obviously, that’s a really good starting spot for us. I would have loved to have gotten the pole, but there’s still a lot of positives over the last month or so. I’m excited because I think tomorrow is a great opportunity for us. We have to make good adjustments for the race and if we execute a solid race, I think we’ll have a shot at it.” HOW WERE YOU ON LONGER RUNS IN PRACTICE? “We built too loose on the long run, but we feel like we have a plan to help that a little bit. Obviously, the track is gonna change a lot. It’s so hot right now. It’s gonna cool off a lot, so just trying to make the right adjustments for the weather changing and the race conditions, but, overall, the biggest thing today was just to walk out of here with a good starting spot, which we did.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Castrol Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Having good track position to start is gonna be important and then not giving that up throughout the night, we can’t afford to do that. We need to play offense and look forward and make the 2 and the 97 worry about us and not worry about anybody behind us.” DO YOU BELIEVE DIAMONDS ARE MADE UNDER PRESSURE? “Sure, I guess. For me, pressure or no pressure it doesn’t matter to me.” HAVE THE PRANKS WITH CHRIS BEEN A NICE PRESSURE RELEASE? “There’s a time and place for it. Right now, all of our teams and our focus is trying to win, so it’s nice to be able to be lighthearted and have a good time and be able to show who we are as people, but I think right now my focus is Richmond, New Hampshire and Daytona.”
