Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
YellaWood 500 — Talladega Superspeedway
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Ford Unofficial Finishing Results:
7th – Todd Gilliland
12th – Josh Berry
13th – Ryan Preece
19th – Zane Smith
20th – Noah Gragson
24th – Brad Keselowski
27th – Austin Cindric
32nd – Chris Buescher
34th – Joey Logano
38th – Ryan Blaney
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED THERE? “It looks like I just got a little push in the wrong spot there. It was a very much a Talladega Nights moment like, ‘Oh, no. I’m upside down. This is not good moment.’ But I can’t think the safety crew enough. They did an amazing job flipping that thing over. The car did a great job. The last time I flipped it was crushed on my head. This time, I don’t think anything really caved or crushed at all. I appreciate what NASCAR has done. Thank you and the safety team for getting me out of there. There were some vicious hits in that one. I’m just happy to be alive.” IT WENT QUIET ON THE RADIO IN THERE. ARE YOU OK? “I’m fine. The radios got disconnected and I kept trying to, I was thinking about my wife. She was probably wigging out on me, but I tried talking to whoever I could, but when I flipped everything came off out of the pockets there. It was a hell of a ride. I don’t know if I should be mad that I wrecked or happy to be alive. I think I’m more happy to be alive. Screw the rest of the stuff, but it was a wild ride there. We were in position to do something pretty good there and it’s just the end of the race scenario. You feel it coming. You know it. I seen the cars that are around me and I was like, ‘This is not how I dreamed it up,’ but it is what it is.” WHAT HAPPENED AFTER WATCHING THE REPLAY? “It’s the end of the race. Carson was doing a good job pushing me in the right spots and everything and it just seemed like a lot of action was happening in the tri-oval and just got a shove right in the wrong spot and it shipped me. I almost had it saved, I thought, and then I went head-on into the fence and had a Ricky Bobby moment at Talladega more than I like it. It was a long time on the lid and a hell of a ride, but I’m glad I didn’t tumble. Again, the safety crew did an amazing job flipping that thing over. They were there immediately and someone was in my window the whole time. It’s a scary feeling to be honest with you because you’re upside down and you can’t get out. You’re seeing fuel and stuff leak and it’s like, ‘Man, I don’t like this.’ But it was nice to have somebody right there with me and they did a nice job flipping it over and the car did its job, too. Thank you to NASCAR and all the work they do there. That was much needed on this one, so I appreciate that. I don’t know whether to be frustrated because I wrecked or happy to be alive. I’m kind of choosing the happy to be alive at this point. That was a long time to be on the lid.” YOU WON A STAGE AND LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE ON YOUR WAY TO A GOOD POINTS DAY. YOU COULDN’T GET AROUND THE 1 CAR. COULD YOU HAVE WORKED WITH HIS SPOTTER AT ALL? “I could have, but it’s kind of picking the lesser of the evils. I mean, I thought about it. There were a couple of times I could have slipped the 1, and then I thought, ‘Well, what am I gonna do have the 47 behind me? That’s no better than where I’m at.’ I kind of liked that I had the wall defending me to keep me from getting slipped. I had no friends. There were no Fords up there, so I was like, ‘I’m not gonna make the move because I’ve got no one to catch me if something goes wrong.’ So, I was kind of content just hanging, just trying to keep the 1 in the lead and he was a lap down, so I thought if I could push him to the front, I’ve got a shot to win it. That’s all I was trying to do is just keep myself in the game.” HOW ARE YOU FEELING? “I’m fine. I’m all good.” SOME WOULD SAY THE 1 SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN OUT OF THE WAY, BUT HE JUST GOT THE FREE PASS, SO DOES HE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE UP THERE? “Yeah, it’s a race. Everyone has a right to go racing. He’s racing for himself as well. I don’t know. Was he one down? He was on the lead lap, so it wasn’t his fault that we wrecked. I don’t think you can really blame it on anyone. It’s just what speedway racing is these days. It really sucks at times. At times it’s pretty awesome and at times you end up on your lid and you say it sucks. I don’t know. I like Martinsville (laughing).”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT WAS YOUR PERSPECTIVE OF WHAT HAPPENED? “We were just racing hard three-wide and protecting and probably didn’t make a very good move.” HOW DO YOU MOVE FORWARD THESE NEXT TWO RACES? “It hurts us a lot, so we’ll have to see what we can do next week.” WHAT ABOUT THE MOVE LOGANO MADE? “It wasn’t his fault. We were both trying to protect it. Both of us didn’t time it very good and unfortunately wrecked folks. I feel like I had a hand in kind of being aggressive there, but it’s a shame guys got tore up.” WHAT HAPPENED? “Just trying to protect lanes and kind of got to the top lane and got big shoves. I don’t know. Everyone just pushing hard and things kind of got squirrely.” COULD YOU TELL A DIFFERENCE WITH THE SPOILER CHANGE? “A little bit. Not a ton from Daytona, but Daytona and here are completely different, so I think there was some similarities for sure, but a little bit of a difference.” WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR YOUR CHASE HOPES? “It’s on life support. That’s for sure, but you never know. It definitely doesn’t help. That’s something we couldn’t afford to have today and unfortunately it happened, so we’ll just have to go show up next week and try to do the best we can.” WHAT IS YOUR CONFIDENCE GOING TO MARTINSVILLE? “I feel good. I’ll know a little more on Saturday.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Knauf Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED? “It sure looked like Talladega to me. It’s kind of all we could do there is try and push our lane forward and guys racing up front for the lead pushed too hard and spun out and I hit a few of them and now I’m here.” THE PENSKE FORDS WERE FAST. WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THIS NEW PACKAGE? “It definitely raced different than we’ve typically seen here. Maybe the eye test doesn’t say that, but it was an interesting race and obviously great to linked up with Joey there to get some stage points, but it’s just a shame we weren’t able to finish out the deal and have more control over our end result.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops/Peak Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU HAVE THE LEAD FOR THE FINAL RESTART, BUT YOU HAVE THE 24 BEHIND YOU AND HIS TEAMMATE WERE OUTSIDE. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? “I was really, really wishing I had at least a little bit of Ford horsepower behind me there. That was a pretty lonely feeling that at this point in the Chase, those guys have shown you over and over what they’re willing to do. I knew I was in a really tough spot, and then, honestly, the 24 was more help than I expected. Once the 5 got down there I was like, ‘Alright, maybe we just go race it out.’ And the 5 actually got hung out. Seriously, I don’t even know where he came from. I think we all just kind of got jammed up. I kind of got onto the apron into turn three and then, I don’t know, those guys were really far out in front of me and then the guys kind of got hooked up behind me. I just didn’t do a good job of blocking it there at the end, but everyone was coming extremely fast behind me, so, I don’t know. We just didn’t feel like we had great raw speed, but, overall, we’ll take it. That was the first time I feel like I had a real opportunity at one of these things, so we’ll just keep learning.” WHAT OPTIONS DO YOU HAVE WHEN YOU’RE ALONE LIKE THAT? “Put the left sides on the line and make whoever is behind you push you. I think that was our whole thing. I would have loved to choose the middle or the outside lane, but we’ve seen it in years past, I think it was with the 60 last year. If there are three, four or five of them in line, they’ll just go around you and you really have no option at that point. Once you get stuck in the middle, you’re really toast. That was at least our plan was to stick to the bottom and from there just kind of see what develops. Like I said, I knew I wasn’t in a great spot, but it was a chance nonetheless.” SO YOU DON’T RETHINK THE LANE CHOICE? “No. I think if anything I’m more so thinking about what I could have done on the last lap. I think the 24 was way off me when we were kind of getting up to speed, which doesn’t help. It’s not great for sure, but I feel like I just missed some blocks there. I think there was a lot going on and I just didn’t do the best job on the backstretch back to the start-finish line of that last lap.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHERE DID THAT STRATEGY CALL IN THE FIRST STAGE COME FROM? “The key to racing is always being the first one, whether that be in the shop, on the track, strategy, whatever it may be you find the advantage before everybody else. I’m pumped that they did that because I’m a racer. I want people to push the crap out of things to be the first one because then we all benefit from it, so hopefully that sets the tone for the off-season and everything we’re gonna work on towards next year.” YOU COULD HEAR HOW PUMPED UP YOU AND EVERYONE WAS AFTER THAT. “We essentially eliminated people We ruined people’s days by doing what we did. I think there were only 26 or 27 cars on the lead lap after the first stage and that will never happen again. I don’t think anyone would ever allow it to happen and, yeah, it was just really cool, but, to me, that’s not being stupid but thinking outside the box and executing a good plan. Good for them. I want that on all facets, everything.” WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THIS NEW PACKAGE? “I don’t know. I think there’s still a lot to digest and look back on. There were times the outside, the third lane worked. There were times the first lane worked. I think a lot of it is there’s some bad habits that were created in the 2015 era of just killing momentum and ultimately I think it just ruins lanes. I don’t know, but I know that if somebody was on your door, I know my car got light a few times.”
