Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Bank of America 400 — Charlotte Motor Speedway
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Ford Finishing Results:
3rd – Ryan Blaney
4th – Josh Berry
9th – Joey Logano
10th – Chris Buescher
15th – Ryan Preece
17th – Austin Cindric
20th – Zane Smith
22nd – Todd Gilliland
25th – Noah Gragson
29th – Brad Keselowski
36th – Gray Gaulding
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I was able to come back from that [pit road speeding penalty], so proud of that effort. Yeah, just keep going, and I’m looking forward to the next month.” ON RECENT HISTORY AT PHOENIX – “I look forward to it, but I look forward to going no matter where it’s at every week. I think this team can do a great job at figuring out things when we need to, whether that’s going to a track we’ve been successful at, or going to tracks we need to work at. They’ve done a really good job. Phoenix [Raceway] has been a good one for us, and hopefully it’ll be a good one again next week.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU JUST STAYED IN THE HUNT AT THE END. HOW GOOD WAS YOUR CAR IN THE FINAL STAGE? “I felt like our car was really strong all day. We made some good progress at the start and then when the 54 got the wall on that restart we went all the way to the back again because it was right in front of us. We battled back from the back again and I was really happy with the car the majority of the race. We just kind of plugged along and finally had a real good long run there at the end and was able to make some progress.” DID THEY MAKE ANY CHANGES FOR THAT FINAL RUN TO CONTEND WITH THE LEADERS? “We felt like we were a better car on the long run and then early in that stage I tried to just manage myself a little bit just in case it ran long and ultimately it did. I think some of those guys started to cord their tires and fall off, but it was just a really good job by Miles and the whole group. That’s another good finish. We’ll go to Phoenix and try to do it again.” HOW MUCH HAVE THE FORDS IMPROVED ON THESE 1.5-MILE TRACKS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR? “I think everybody has been working really hard and it’s certainly gotten a lot better. Last week, I really liked my car in practice before we had the tire issue. I think that just kind of screwed the whole weekend up from there on out, but we kind of went back with what we learned last week there and the guys brought a really good car. Hat’s off to all of them for sticking with it and working hard. It was a lot of fun today.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We’ve got to win now, we’re 90-whatever something back. We’ve got to do some special stuff from here on out to make up the 100 points. We got that damage early in the race. I don’t know what happened. They all stacked up in front of me and I packed the nose in, unsealed the splitter, which surely didn’t help any. Yeah, we were ninth, maybe we could’ve been top five-ish if I didn’t have the damage. You know, it could’ve been worse, but we just didn’t get any stage points, that’s the worst part.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s a top 10. We’ve been needing a good, solid run. We’ve been kind of inching up on it the last couple of weeks, but to drive in the top 10 and get some stage points on the day, that’s some progress. We’re not all the way there, for sure, but I’m proud of everybody to take this Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang and work hard at it. We had a pit stop mishap and I’m proud of everybody for calling it out and catching it and not letting us go out there and have a bigger issue. Thanks to the 60 bunch for tightening it up and we clawed back from there. They did a solid job on pit road the rest of the night, so it was good work by everybody. We’ve got to raise our ceiling. I feel like we’ve been looking at it as though our ceiling is about 10th place right now, so we kind of maximized what I felt like we had today. WIthout the penalty, we might have had another spot or two, but it was a solid day overall.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Libman Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s a shame that our final run of the race went the way it did. It was pretty uncharacteristic from the other portions of the race. Past that, I thought that we had a pretty fast Menards/Libman Ford. Yeah, it’s just a shame that last run was by far our worst of the race. We’re going to have to go back and review that, but we still got some solid points.”
FORD PROUD TO HONOR VETERANS DAY CLASSIC
The inaugural Ford Proud To Honor Veterans Day Classic is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 11 at Daytona International Speedway. Ford, in collaboration with NASCAR, Blue Star Families, IMSA and HSR, is bringing together motorsports, music and a shared mission of military support all in honor of service members, veterans and their families. This is a first-of-its kind military tribute race with all six branches of the armed forces being represented by 12 Ford Racing drivers. In addition, Zac Brown Band will be performing. For fans wanting more information and to purchase tickets, they can go to the official website at fordveteransdayclassic.com.
