FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: BRISTOL NOTES
The NASCAR Cup Series moves to the mountains of East Tennessee this weekend as Bristol Motor Speedway serves as the site for Sunday’s Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500. Ford goes into the event with a series-best four victories in 2020 and leads the manufacturer standings after eight races. Following that, the NASCAR XFINITY Series will run the Cheddar’s 300 presented by Alsco on Monday night.
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT BMS
· Ford has 37 all-time series wins at BMS.
· Joey Logano won back-to-back Bristol Night Races in 2014 and 2015.
· Roger Penske is tied for the most BMS series wins among active owners with 12.
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT BMS
· Ford has nine series wins at BMS.
· The last Ford victory came by Joey Logano in 2015 (Drive to Stop Diabetes 300).
· Chase Briscoe (1st) and Austin Cindric (2nd) lead the series point standings after six events.
FORD CONTINUES STRONG 2020 START
Since NASCAR returned to action two weeks ago at Darlington, Ford has won two of the four Cup Series races with Brad Keselowski winning last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 and Kevin Harvick taking the Darlington opener on May 17. Overall, Ford has four wins on the season with Team Penske’s Joey Logano owning two of those at Las Vegas and Phoenix. That has helped Ford to a 19-point lead in the manufacturer standings.
HARVICK RUNS TOP 10 STREAK TO EIGHT IN A ROW
Kevin Harvick will be the first to tell you that he was hoping for more than a 10th-place finish in Thursday’s Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He passed Alex Bowman on lap 126 and led 54 of the next 55 laps, but the long run that ensued didn’t play into his hands and he ultimately fell back through the field over the final 28 circuits. By finishing 10th, however, he remains the only driver to post a top 10 finish in all eight races this season. As a result, he holds a 14-point lead in the standings over Logano.
TEAM PENSKE FINDING THEIR GROOVE
The Team Penske trio of Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney has seemingly found a groove with at least two of them finishing in the top 10 in each of the last three races. Keselowski’s win in the Coca-Cola 600 last week stands as the highlight, but in Thursday night’s event at Charlotte Motor Speedway all three finished inside the top-10 for the first time this season. That also solidified their spots in the top-10 of the point standings with Logano second, Keselowski fifth and Blaney sixth.
FIREBALL BURNS BRIGHT IN FORD DEBUT
Ford won its first NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 31, 1963 when Fireball Roberts won the Southeastern 500. What made the win so noteworthy is that it marked the debut of Roberts with Ford as a teammate of Fred Lorenzen’s at Holman-Moody. The duo put on a dominant show that day as they combined to lead 329 of 500 laps with Roberts leading 165 and Lorenzen 164. Roberts passed his new teammate with eight laps to go and won by five seconds as the race saw only one caution for nine laps. Roberts went on to win four races in 1963 while Lorenzen won six times.
A THREE SERIES SWEEP
One of the most memorable Ford weekends in recent years came in August of 2014 when Ford swept all three NASCAR series races – Gander RV & Outdoors Truck, XFINITY and Monster Energy Cup at Bristol Motor Speedway. Brad Keselowski captured his first NGOTS victory while Ryan Blaney took the XFINITY event. Joey Logano capped the weekend sweep when he passed Matt Kenseth with 45 laps to go and then had to hold off Keselowski to post his third win of the 2014 season. Logano was in control until caution came out with 69 laps to go. While he pitted for four tires, Kenseth and others stayed out which put Logano sixth on the ensuing restart with 63 to go. With fresh tires, however, he was able to move to the front in less than 20 laps and then hold off his Penske teammate down the stretch. It marked the first time Ford swept all three divisions in the same weekend since 2006 when Mark Martin (GOTS) and Kenseth (NXS and MENCS) did it, ironically, at Bristol.
BRISTOL BULLET POINTS
Rusty Wallace and Kurt Busch lead the way with five career Ford wins at BMS while Fred Lorenzen won three consecutive races at the half-mile oval…In addition, Alan Kulwicki won five races during his NASCAR Cup Series career and two of those came at Bristol Motor Speedway (1991-92)…Ford has swept both Bristol races seven times with the last coming in 2014 when Carl Edwards won the first event in March and Logano followed with his Night Race triumph in August.
ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND
The date was July 20, 1969 and while Neil Armstrong we uttering those groundbreaking words as being the first man to step foot on the moon, David Pearson was busy winning at Bristol on the first race since the track installed high banking. What made the race even more interesting is that Pearson was relieved during the race by none other than Richard Petty, who was driving a Ford that season and dropped out earlier in the event. Even more ironic is that Petty was chasing Pearson for the championship that season, one in which Pearson eventually won for the second straight time.
FORD MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP WINNERS AT BRISTOL
1963 – Fireball Roberts and Fred Lorenzen
1964 – Fred Lorenzen (Sweep)
1965 – Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett
1966 – Dick Hutcherson (1)
1968 – David Pearson (Sweep)
1969 – David Pearson (2)
1970 – Donnie Allison (1)
1971 – David Pearson (1)
1988 – Bill Elliott (1)
1990 – Davey Allison (1)
1991 – Alan Kulwicki (2)
1992 – Alan Kulwicki (1)
1993 – Mark Martin (2)
1994 – Rusty Wallace (2)
1996 – Rusty Wallace (2)
1997 – Dale Jarrett (2)
1998 – Mark Martin (2)
1999 – Rusty Wallace (1)
2000 – Rusty Wallace (Sweep)
2001 – Elliott Sadler (1)
2002 – Kurt Busch (1)
2003 – Kurt Busch (Sweep)
2004 – Kurt Busch (1)
2005 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2006 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2007 – Carl Edwards (2)
2008 – Carl Edwards (2)
2014 – Carl Edwards and Joey Logano
2015 – Joey Logano (2)
2018 – Kurt Busch (2)
FORD NASCAR XFINITY WINNERS AT BRISTOL
1989 – Mark Martin (2)
1994 – Kenny Wallace (2)
1996 – Mark Martin (1)
1997 – Jeff Burton (1)
2006 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2007 – Carl Edwards (1)
2009 – David Ragan (2)
2014 – Ryan Blaney (2)
2015 – Joey Logano (1)
