Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Night Race Media Availability — Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, September 18, 2026
Today’s scheduled NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session was cancelled due to rain and lightning. Before that announcement, a number of Ford drivers visited the infield media center and answered questions about this weekend and the Chase.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU ARE 51 POINTS BEHIND. IS THAT TOO FAR OUT TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “No, we can do it from where we’re at. I think we’re on the edge. It’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be challenging. We did have a good weekend last weekend and scored a lot of points. We’re scratching and clawing and there’s still a lot of racing to go. There are lots of points available and lots of crazy things that can happen, so we’re keeping ourselves in the story. We’re still in the game.” DO YOU THINK WE’RE GOING TO SHRED TIRES TOMORROW? “I don’t think so. No, I don’t. It’s pretty warm and a lot of it depends on temperature, but I don’t see it happening personally. It’s pretty warm out.” WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IT AS A WAY TO SHAKE THINGS UP? “I like it. I think it’s awesome. Maybe I’m one of the few, I don’t know, but I think it’s pretty interesting and it changes it up. It’s kind of fun because you don’t know what’s gonna happen until it starts happening and then everyone is scrambling. I think it’s fun. I like it. It changes things up.” HOW EASY WAS IT TO TURN THE PAGE AFTER LAST WEEK WITH ONLY GETTING 54 POINTS. IT’S A GREAT DAY, BUT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR MORE. “You just keep moving on. It’s racing. It is what it is. You can’t change the past. You’ve got to look to the future. Was it bittersweet? Yeah, that’s the best word you can use for this whole thing because on one hand, to your point, 54 points is a pretty great day, but the 74 that was sitting there would have been a lot better. That’s because we’re greedy race car drivers. That’s what we do. It’s always like, ‘I always want a little bit more.’ That’s the competitive person inside all of us in this sport. You always think about what could have been, but, at the same time, you still think of what could have been and it could have been way worse. It just didn’t play out like we needed it to at the end of the race. You move on. You chalk it up and say, ‘OK, we’ve got to go to Bristol and score a bunch of points.’ That’s the bottom line.” IS THIS THE SAME SCENARIO FOR YOU AS LAST WEEK? “Yeah, I think so. I think we’ve got to get ourselves to where we’re 20 points back or so at some point in the next few weeks. You’ve got to expect the guys that are gonna win the championship are gonna have a hell of a run here and, yeah, there’s been some crazy things happening, especially last week, but you’ve got to think at some point somebody is gonna go on a run and get themselves far out there, so we’ve got to keep ourselves close enough to where we can score the points we need to win this thing. I believe where we’re at in points it’s possible to go out and win the championship. I think we’re at the tail end of it though. We were at the tail end of it going into Gateway last week and we’ve kept ourselves at the tail end of it. We’re just squeeking by, but we know that. Even going into the Chase to start we were like, ‘Yes, we have a shot at winning the championship, a good shot at it, but we’re at the tail end of that good shot.’ That’s just where we’re living right now, but that’s a product of how we were in the beginning part of the year.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 WABASH Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WE’VE SEEN SOME GUYS MAKE UP POINTS ON FIRST PLACE. DOES THAT TELL YOU THAT YOU HAVE TO WIN IN THIS CHASE TO BE THE CHAMPION? “Yeah, I think so, for sure. I think you’re gonna have to win multiple races in the Chase to just keep up. Big stage days like those guys have had. Winning the race they’ve made up gobs of points, so you’re gonna have to be winning through these 10 weeks multiple times and hopefully we can start contributing to that.” HAVE YOU USED YOUR MULLIGAN AFTER LAST WEEK? “Yeah. You don’t want to use one early, but I guess if you’re gonna use one, maybe use it early. It stinks what happened last week. We did a great job through the race of getting us where we need to be and then not finishing obviously is a bummer, but that’s racing and that’s the way it goes. We’re fortunate to where we’re not as far back out of the lead as I thought we were going to be after we had our problem, so it’s still attainable for sure. Like you just said, all of the point swings that can happen if you go win a couple, the next thing you know you’re right back in the thick of it. We’re not really dwelling on last week. You hate to throw points away, but you understand you’re gonna have problems and it’s how do you rebound from those problems and hopefully we can learn from that stuff going forward and respond in a big way.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Body Guard by Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT NASCAR CHANGING THE WET WEATHER TIRE POLICY? “I’ve always been a fan of let us make the decision. We’re not children. We’re grown men and we have teams that are professionals that are more than capable of making good decisions, so I think it’s probably best that they let us make those decisions because it also creates strategy and different strategies also create good racing.” DO YOU THINK THE TRACK WILL CONTINUE TO WIDEN OUT LIKE IT DID IN THE TRUCK RACE? “I was surprised as well usually with the trucks they don’t, at least in practice it never really gets wide, but their race got wide quick. Last year, it kind of did the same thing, and I think we all figured that it was gonna lay enough rubber and we weren’t gonna kind of see the tire shredding or high tire wear race that we didn’t really expect last year. That’s why it kind of makes me think that we’re definitely potentially in for one tomorrow. I don’t know.” WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE OF BRISTOL? “There’s three different ways you can really run this place. One is the way Kyle Larson does, which he likes running the top, and then the other one is the one I prefer which is ripping the bottom and being right against the line. That becomes a balance of which one is gonna make more speed and which one is pissing the tire off more.”
