Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Bank of America 400 Media Availabilities — Charlotte Motor Speedway
Saturday, October 10, 2026
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – Talking about championship battle – “Points are at the top of mind all the time. I think where we are 71 [points] back, we’ll get through Charlotte and see where we fare out of here. Hopefully we have a pretty solid run, score some points, and keep ourselves in range. I look at the tracks coming up; Phoenix, Martinsville, Las Vegas, all those tracks are tracks we can win at.”
On this weekend – “Glad to be back out here [on the oval configuration]. We’ll see what we got when we get out there. If it’s today, I’d be surprised, but if we get out there we’ll make some laps and see what we got. If not it’ll be tomorrow and we’ll all figure it out together, 30-whatever cars deep into turn one and we’ll see what it does. It’s always a lot of faith and a lot of trust in the team to hit all those things right, but I know we can.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I’d much rather be leading. I think there’s a little bit of added pressure like ‘don’t mess it up’ since you can almost start being defensive, and you can maybe lose what got you there. If you can maybe shift your mindset to the guys that are chasing, obviously they can’t afford a mistake either so there’s that pressure there, but it is a little bit more of a different mindset in that you have the opportunity to catch this person. So I think it’s a little bit different, but I’d much rather have that weight on my shoulders leading it and trying to maintain it than having to chase.’
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang Dark Horse – Approach for this race compared to spring – “I would say largely it is a very similar starting point. Obviously you’ll have a bit of different weather conditions. We think it’ll be during the day and it won’t go into a night race. Charlotte is one of the tracks that changes the most drastically with conditions. With that being said, we’re kind of experiencing a little bit more consistency at the track if it stays on target here.”
On being back on the oval – “I’m glad to be back on the oval. I appreciate the Roval for what it was, and I’ve enjoyed the handful of years that we did it to start. But I’m glad to be back on the big track. With the weather and the shorter race it’ll be a lot more like the other mile-and-a-half races that play out. But yeah, it’ll be fun. I really like this track, I love the fact that we can move around so much here. It [Charlotte] has so much character, It’s put on some really good races and I think that was the big push to get us back on the oval.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Kroger/Blue Buffalo Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s only 400 miles, so yeah the stages are going to be different. You know in the [Coke] 600, they’re [stages] 100 laps. There’s a lot of time for things to happen. Hopefully, we can unload really fast, since I felt really good about our car in May.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “”I’m glad that we’re back on the oval. I hate that the weather hasn’t cooperated so far, but my team says that Sunday the weather’s going to get way better, so I’m happy to hear that. The oval presents a different set of challenges, clearly, than the Roval does. The fact that this is a 400 miles race instead of a 600 mile race is probably something you’ve heard from every other driver, but it is a difference maker for sure, in how you race the track and how you approach the track. We’ll see if we end up racing during the day or during the night. If it’s during the day it’s going to be really slick and really hard to get a hold up. It will present a significant challenge either way but even more so during the day.”
