Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
YellaWood 500 Media Availability — Talladega Superspeedway
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse, comes into this weekend trailing leader Kyle Larson by 40 points for the NASCAR Cup Series championship. Those two, along with Chase Briscoe, participated in a press conference before today’s qualifying session.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CHASE FORMAT AND HOW IT’S PLAYED OUT? “What do you all think? Has it been exciting? I think that’s the most important thing is do the fans enjoy it. I know from my side, I have personally enjoyed it. I pay way more attention to the points week in and week out, not only through the Chase but beforehand way more than I ever did in previous years because it was so much more important and you kind of knew the guys you were racing. I think it puts pressure on you every week. You don’t have rounds to go, ‘Hey, we’ve already advanced to the next one.’ It keeps it really exciting and exhilarating. You look at last week, the excitement level. I’m sorry, Kyle, for bringing this up, but the whole storyline is, ‘Oh, six more guys are back in it now and they have a shot because the points leader had a bad day.’ That stuff is really exciting for everybody watching and people involved in it, so I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it’s good to have a lot of consistency in there. You need it. And winning has mattered probably even more than it has. I feel like before it was the playoffs I feel like in the Chase we talk about wins more. Before it was like, ‘Oh, you advanced to the next round. That’s cool. We’re not gonna talk about you much for the next race or two.’ Where, now, winning, that’s a massive points day for that person. How many positions did he jump? Did he get close to the lead or did he extend his lead? So, I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it’s been a lot of fun to be a part of, and I hope it’s been fun to watch, too.”
DO YOU SEE THIS TRACK AS AN OPPORTUNITY OR IS THERE MORE PRESSURE? “I’ve always tried to go to these places – Daytona and Talladega and stuff – and just try to do the best job that you can. Do you prepare as much as you can with your team and with your group and can you go execute that day? If you do, that’s very, very rewarding if you can go and do the right things and everything works out for you. But, if things don’t go your way and something happens that is outside of your control, that’s just kind of it is what it is. Sometimes, there’s not a lot you can do about it and you just have to deal with that, but, yeah, I think everyone thinks of these speedways a little bit differently, but I’ve always enjoyed coming just because I like the style, and I feel like it’s just a different form of racing and you just hope you make the right decisions. Sometimes you don’t, but you just hope you make the right ones between yourself and your group.”
AT DAYTONA YOU WERE EXCITED ABOUT THE AERO CHANGE BECAUSE THERE WAS NO SCIENCE TO IT. HAS SOME OF THE SCIENCE CREPT BACK INTO IT SINCE THEN? “Yeah, I mean, gosh, even before Daytona everyone over-engineered the hell out of it of aero maps and things like that, simulations of how do you have to adjust everything, your ride height to get close downforce numbers as you did before, whether that’s raising the nose or what, and now just with more time and not as big of a change from Daytona, teams obviously look at that stuff and figure it out. There’s only so much you can do from the car world, but I think drivers are like, ‘OK, we’ve got a race under our belt with this package.’ You kind of got the feel for how it drove, how it drafted. This is a different place than Daytona. It races a little bit differently, but I think with a half-inch spoiler change it’s not gonna be obviously as drastic as the multiple inches that they took off of it for that Daytona race. That’s what teams do. They go into data and try to tweak little things here and there, same as drivers. We try to tweak little things here and there from did you do some bad things at Daytona? How do you adjust it and try to do the right things, so you’re always working at it no matter how much experience or inexperience you have with it.”
HOCEVAR WAS IN HERE EARLIER AND HE TALKED ABOUT THE FERRARI STORY. HOW HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP CHANGED, IF AT ALL, IN THE LAST MONTH? “Not really any. Yeah, not really much, whether before or after. I don’t walk around with a grudge on my shoulder. I get over that stuff and go out. The funny thing is we had our little mix up at Bristol and we’ve raced each other even better than when we did before, which we really didn’t have any problems before. It really hasn’t changed at all.”
BUT HE HELPED YOU WITH THE FERRARI? “That was back, yeah, he got me connected with some people of a potential buyer, which I didn’t pull the trigger on it, but he did help me with contacts.”
