Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ambetter Health 400 Qualifying | Saturday, February 22, 2025
BLANEY EXTENDS FORD POLE STREAK AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
- Ryan Blaney won the pole for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400.
- Ford has won the last five NASCAR Cup Series poles at AMS (Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Michael McDowell twice, and Ryan Blaney).
- Ford has swept the front row in five straight AMS qualifying sessions (Blaney/Cindric (2025-1, McDowell/Blaney (2024-2), McDowell/Logano (2024-1), Almirola-Blaney (2023-2), Logano/Cindric (2023-1).
- Team Penske has had at least one driver start on the front row in each of the last five races (Blaney, 2025-1, Blaney, 2024-2; Logano, 2024-1; Blaney, 2023-2; Logano and Cindric, 2023-1)
- Ford swept the top eight spots in the 2023 spring race.
- Ford swept the top six spots in the 2023 summer race.
- Ford swept the top five spots in the 2024 summer race.
- Ford swept the top five spots in the 2025 spring race.
- Ford swept the top five spots and nine of the top 10 in the 2025 spring race.
- The Cup pole also represents the 200th in Roush Yates Engines history.
Ford Qualifying Results:
1st – Ryan Blaney
2nd – Austin Cindric
3rd – Josh Berry
4th – Joey Lagano
5th – Todd Gilliland
7th – Zane Smith
8th – Chris Buescher
9th – Brad Keselowski
10th – Noah Gragson
11th – Ryan Preece
23rd – Cole Custer
31st – Cody Ware
35th – Corey LaJoie
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BodyArmor Zero Sugar Ford Mustang Dark Horse – PIT ROAD INTERVIEW: “That’s a really cool effort by the whole 12 boys. The BodyArmor Zero Sugar Ford Mustang was really good. It drove great. I think we got the 2 by like two one thousandths of a second, so that was close. I think it just shows the speed in all of our cars – the Penske cars, the 21 is fast as well – and also big props to everybody back home and everybody who is here – Roush Yates Engines. Hopefully, it carries over into tomorrow. Hopefully, they drive well, so it seems to be like we have a pretty decent handle on this place, but you still never know going into the race. It’s a cool day today and looking forward to hopefully keeping all four of us up there tomorrow.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Delta Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s really cool to have four cars that come out of our race shop top four in the field, so I can’t tell you how many Fords are up there in the top 10, but it’s an incredible effort by everybody. I would love to have the pole. I can’t tell you how many front row starts I’ve had at these speedway races, but it means we’ve had some exceptionally fast cars. The Menards/Delta Ford Mustang was clearly fast right off the truck and really good with repeatability between the rounds there for us, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. A lot goes on because today is the speed piece and tomorrow is the handling piece.”
Ambetter Health 400 NASCAR Cup Series pole sitter Ryan Blaney’s post qualifying press conference at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BodyArmor Zero Sugar Ford Mustang Dark Horse – ABOUT HIS POLE POSITION WINNING LAP “This is a testimony to our whole group, Team Penske and the Wood Brothers, being top-four. This is a great job by them. Hey, my job is pretty easy today. I need to make sure I don’t hit the chip or overshift and the rest of it is just raw speed of what the teams build in them. All those folks, not just at the track but also back at the race shop, and it shows how similar all of our cars are, all being right there together. Hopefully it translates to the race tomorrow in handling and things like that. But, yeah, a pretty cool day. “
WORKING WITH HIS TEAMMATES AND HOW THE RACE WILL BE TOMORROW IF THEY CAN LINK UP “At the start, and hopefully it stays that way, but things are going to change throughout the race. It is kinda nice that, at least at the start of the race, hopefully the first stage, you can control. But it’s not going to be that way the whole race, right? You are going to get shuffled at some point. Pit strategy is going to come into play so I just need to react to that. But it is nice to all start together. Hopefully, we can control the first part of it and then go from there and find each other when we can. We do a good job of that. We have lots and lots of talks between us four and the team about how do we do this the very best that we can? Fast cars and teamwork. There is a reason you see all of us leading a bunch of laps and contending for these wins. So, yes, it is nice to be around each other at first but I want it to be that way at the end. So we will see.”
CAN YOU TELL ANY DIFFERENCE IN THE CAR WITH HOW COLD IT IS OUTSIDE AND DO YOU EXPECT ANY CHANGE TOMORROW? “No. I think my car drove fantastic. I thought my car drove better than last year in qualifying here. What does that tell me? I don’t know. I feel fine. Maybe with a little warmer temps tomorrow might change. I hope it does. It is only going to get to the 50s or so. I wish it was warmer though because then I think you would really start to see guys struggle and handling will come into play. I think with the track aging year after year, it gets a little bit better. The third lane is super accessible now. I think you are going to see that come into play. Hopefully, we are slipping and sliding around because that is what makes for pretty good racing here. We will find out. I couldn’t tell too much from two laps by myself today.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO RACE YOUR TEAMS FOR A WIN AND DO YOU TALK ABOUT THAT AHEAD OF TIME: “This sport is tough in that aspect of it. You want to win for yourself but you also have teammates you are racing and you want them to win for the company too. But everyone is selfish and they want to win themselves, that is just human nature. But, yeah, we talk a lot: ‘if we are in these spots at the end of these races what are the rules of engagement?’ Roger [Penske] has never said anything about ‘you are not allowed to pass this guy’. He lets us race, which is great. Essentially the rule is: don’t wreck each other. You are free to race, just don’t take each other out running one-two. It does get tough but the good thing is, if we can get three of us to the end of one of these races battling for the win then the company has a really good shot at getting a victory. Team Penske has a good shot at winning. It is tough but you just have to be careful. The biggest thing is race hard but don’t wreck each other. That is really the only rule we have.”
IS IT REASSURING TO HAVE FORDS AS TEN OF THE TOP ELEVEN QUALIFERS: “I think the Fords work pretty well together. I trust my teammates the most – like Josh and Joey and Austin the most – but that is because we are all affiliated together. But I trust the Blue Oval over a Chevy or a Toyota because that is just how the racing is. So it is reassuring when you have more Fords around you. You never know when someone is going to hang you out to dry but that’s racing. They can do what they are going to do. But it is more reassuring when you have more friendlies around you, I guess I would say, but you never know how it is going to work out.”
