FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: CHARLOTTE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND ADVANCE
The annual Memorial Day Weekend is upon us and NASCAR will celebrate by having all three of its top national touring series compete at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Ford’s Brad Keselowski is the defending champion of Sunday’s marquee event – the Coca-Cola 600 — which Ford has won 13 times by 11 drivers. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kicks off the weekend on Friday night, where Ford’s Todd Gilliland will go for his second straight victory, while the NASCAR XFINITY Series competes on Saturday afternoon.
This Week’s Schedule:
Friday, May 28 – NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, 8:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, May 29 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 1 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, May 30 – NASCAR Cup Series, 6 p.m. ET (FOX)
FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT CMS
· Ford has 32 all-time series wins at CMS.
· Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski have oval wins at CMS with Ford while Ryan Blaney won the inaugural Roval event in 2018.
· Keselowski is the defending winner of the Coca-Cola 600.
FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT CMS
· Ford has 22 series wins at CMS.
· Austin Cindric has three starts on the CMS oval and two top-10 finishes.
· Riley Herbst made his CMS debut last spring and finished 12th.
FORD IN THE NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES AT CMS
· Ford is still looking for its first series win at CMS.
· Todd Gilliland has three starts at CMS and two top-10 finishes.
· Hailie Deegan will be making her first start at CMS.
KESELOWSKI GOING FOR SECOND STRAIGHT 600 WIN
Brad Keselowski became the first Ford driver since Mark Martin in 2002 to win the Coca-Cola 600 when he held off Jimmie Johnson in an overtime finish to take the checkered flag. The race ended up going five laps past the advertised distance and ended with Keselowski adding another crown jewel victory with Ford to go with his wins in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis (2018) and Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (2018).
FOUR FORDS IN CUP TOP 10
Ford leads the way with four drivers in the top 10 of the NASCAR Cup Series standings. Joey Logano is the highest among the group as he stands in fourth place while the threesome of Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski are seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively. Blaney (Atlanta), Logano (Bristol Dirt) and Keselowski (Talladega) are all in the playoffs after winning earlier this season while Harvick has the second-highest point total among those still looking for their first victory of the season.
CINDRIC EXTENDS TOP FIVE RUN
Austin Cindric’s fifth-place finish in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Circuit of the Americas continued his impressive streak of consistency to start the 2021 season. Cindric now has eight top-five performances in 11 starts and nine top-10 efforts overall. His finishing average of 6.4 is the best on the circuit and includes victories at Daytona, Phoenix and Dover. Cindric leads the series point standings by 77 over second-place Harrison Burton.
COCA-COLA 600 HIGHLIGHTS
HOLMAN & MOODY CONQUER THE WORLD
Ford won the Coca-Cola 600 for the first time on May 27, 1962 when the race was still referred to as the World 600. This marked the third running of NASCAR’s longest race and in the end it was Nelson Stacy, behind the wheel of a 1962 Holman & Moody Ford, that ended up in victory lane. Stacy passed David Pearson, who developed engine trouble with eight laps to go, and went on to beat Joe Weatherly to the finish line by 32 seconds in posting the third of his four career victories. Fellow Holman & Moody teammate Fred Lorenzen finished third. The win was Stacy’s second straight after he took the checkered flag two weeks earlier in Darlington.
THREE JEWELS FOR DJ
Dale Jarrett won his share of major races during a sterling career in the NASCAR Cup Series, but no season may have been better than his first year driving at Robert Yates Racing in 1996. After winning the season-opening Daytona 500, his second of three triumphs in that event, Jarrett came to Charlotte in search of winning the Coca-Cola 600 for the first time. Jarrett, who qualified 15th, wasn’t much of a factor when the race started, but when the sun went down his No. 88 Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Ford Taurus came to life. He took the lead for the first time on lap 175 and ended up leading 199 of the final 226 laps for RYR to win going away. Jarrett eventually went on to win the Brickyard 400 a couple of months later to give him three of the sports biggest victories in one season.
FIRST-TIME WINNER
Matt Kenseth joined an exclusive club when he made the Coca-Cola 600 his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in 2000. Kenseth, who was in his rookie season driving for car owner Jack Roush, joined David Pearson (1961), Jeff Gordon (1994) and Bobby Labonte (1995) as drivers who made the marquee event their first series win. Kenseth, who nearly won in Fontana (CA) a couple weeks earlier before settling for third, left no doubt on this night as he led the final 26 laps and beat Bobby Labonte to the finish line by half-a-second.
FORD COCA-COLA 600 WINNERS
1962 – Nelson Stacy
1963 – Fred Lorenzen
1965 – Fred Lorenzen
1970 – Donnie Allison
1982 – Neil Bonnett
1987 – Kyle Petty
1991 – Davey Allison
1996 – Dale Jarrett
1999 – Jeff Burton
2000 – Matt Kenseth
2001 – Jeff Burton
2002 – Mark Martin
2020 – Brad Keselowski
FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS AT CHARLOTTE
1992 – Jeff Gordon (Sweep)
1993 – Mark Martin (2)
1995 – Chad Little (1) and Mark Martin (2)
1996 – Mark Martin (Sweep)
1998 – Mark Martin (1)
1999 – Mark Martin (1)
2000 – Jeff Burton (1)
2001 – Jeff Green (1) and Greg Biffle (2)
2002 – Jeff Burton (2)
2003 – Matt Kenseth (1)
2006 – Carl Edwards (1)
2011 – Matt Kenseth (1) and Carl Edwards (2)
2014 – Brad Keselowski (2)
2016 – Joey Logano (2)
2017 – Ryan Blaney (1)
2018 – Brad Keselowski and Chase Briscoe (Roval)
