Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Fresh From Florida 250 | Friday, February 14, 2025
FORD UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
4th – Ty Majeski
7th – Chandler Smith
9th – Jason White
11th – Frankie Muniz
13th – Jake Garcia
17th – Johnny Sauter
18th – Layne Riggs
20th – Josh Reaume
21st – Ben Rhodes
28th – Matt Crafton
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Clark’s/SantaHill Ranch/ToyonRanch Ford F-150 – “Clark’s, SantaHill Ranch, ToyonRanch all came on board to support this race. We had an excellent run for them. It seemed like we could take our Ford F-150 anywhere. It was just super stout. ThorSport gave me an absolute missile. I could do whatever I needed with it. It all came down to the last 20 seconds of the race. Going into turn three, on the backstretch, I was just getting pushed extremely hard. I don’t know, I haven’t seen a replay. I don’t want to make any judgements, but you can only hang on to so much. It’s just physics. The truck gets unloaded and there is only so much you can do with the steering wheel. I spun out but that’s part of Daytona, right? We’ve led a lot of these things coming to the white flag. I never really get excited until the checkered flag drops because I have lost them in turn two leading. I’ve lost them in turn three leading and I’ve lost them across the start-finish line leading so it is just how this goes. One of these days we will get this figured out and bring this home like we should be doing.”
LAYNE RIGGS, No. 34 Love’s RV Stop Ford F-150 – WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LAST LAP? “I don’t quite know. I need to watch the replay, but me and the 15, which he was about I’d say two or three in front of me, we went down into three and right when we went down into three and loaded into the corner and both spun just out of nowhere. I don’t know if someone was pushing me and then he had a flat tire, or if it was ironic or what, but this is my first speedway race I’ve finished. I got wrecked coming to the checkered, but it was a great day for Front Row Motorsports, Love’s, Ford Performance. Me and Chandler Smith worked really well together and a lot of the ThorSport guys did a really good job of doing a great speedway strategy and sticking together as a team. I’m excited to come back. That was a lot of fun.”
CHANDLER GOT DAMAGE AND YOU WERE PUSHING HIM. DID THAT RUIN YOUR PLAN DOWN THE STRETCH? “Yeah, it really did. His nose was pretty caved in and I was pushing him for all I was worth and we were just getting freight trained on the top. I finally had to kind of shuck him to the bottom. I hated to do that. I wished he was good enough, but luckily he got back in line and ended up having a pretty solid finish. I’ve never really been a fan of speedway races, but I was smiling behind the helmet all night.”
CHANDLER SMITH, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford F-150 – “That last restart, I worked well with my teammate, but just running through those motions of teammate restarts and stuff like that and we just didn’t execute it great. The Toyotas got lined up and were able to clear us pretty quickly and we came back with a big run down the backstretch. The 15 threw a really bad block and about wrecked the entire field. If it was somebody else, the whole field would have probably wrecked there, but we got really bad front damage from that. That damaged the speed on our truck after that and unfortunately that was about all she wrote. I’m super proud of the effort. I loved working with Layne. That’s what I was most excited about going into the season on these superspeedways is that Layne doesn’t have any bad relationships with teammates in the past because he doesn’t have any. That’s the biggest thing. I told him, ‘You stick with me, I’ll make sure you’re clear and we’ll go to the front every time.’ Just building that trust and Front Row definitely controlled a majority of this race, so I’m proud of everybody. I appreciate Long John Silver’s, our No. 38 F-150 was fast tonight. I think we led the most laps. I’m definitely very, very proud.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL AFTER LAST NIGHT’S WRECK? “I’m sore. I’m beat and ready to go home.”
TY MAJESKI, No. 98 Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford F-150 – “We made a lot of leaps today as a team. This has been a type of racing that has been outside of my comfort zone, so it was good to put some good stages together. We went from the back to the front multiple times, so something that we’ve not been able to do in the past. I’m excited about that and I had fun out there for the first time in a speedway race. It’s a good way to start defending the championship and a good start to our 2025 season.”
FRANKIE MUNIZ, No. 33 The Electric State Ford F-150 – “It was intense. When I caught them, you saw everyone moving around but I was still half throttle. I went to the top; I was trying to push the top but then I went to the middle and then the bottom had a run so I went there. And thankfully I did because it helped us get through. The thing about Daytona, I’m not calling it luck, but you don’t know what the right move is. I’m just so happy especially after the year we had last year, when it felt like getting punched in the gut, it is positive after the race. I feel really good. I am just so ready for next week.”
