Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
All-Star Race
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Ford Unofficial Finishing Results:
2nd – Joey Logano
10th – Chris Buescher
13th – Noah Gragson
16th – Ryan Blaney
17th – Josh Berry
18th – Austin Cindric
20th – Harrison Burton
22nd – Brad Keselowski
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WALK US THROUGH THAT FINAL RUN AND HOW HARD WERE YOU DRIVING? “It’s all you’ve got. I was hoping I could just fight him long enough to where the advantage would go away a little bit, but it just never did. I did as best I can blocking my butt off, but once he got under me just released the brake and gave me no option to either fence it and wreck or run up in the marbles and spin out like what happened to Heim in the Truck race. I get it. We’re racing for a million bucks, but things carry over all the time, but it just stings. I’m upset because we had the best car. We had the best car by a long shot and we didn’t win. I don’t know. A lot of things are running through my mind I probably shouldn’t say.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE BELL’S MOVE WAS FAIR OR FOUL WHEN YOU’RE RACING FOR A MILLION DOLLARS? “It is what it is. I don’t know. I mean, sure. Sure. He did it good enough that I couldn’t get back to him because I was gonna show him what fair was, but I just couldn’t get there. I just couldn’t get there with the tires. I couldn’t get away fast enough. It took me six or seven laps after that restart to get rolling again and then he passed too many cars there the first couple laps and then he was there. I was doing all I can to play defense until my rear tires would come in and it just took too long, and then he was gone. I couldn’t catch back up. It’s frustrating when you lead that many laps, you had the fastest car and a gimmick caution beats you. It just sucks, but it is what it is. You move on and we’ll be happy that we had the best car the last two times that we’ve been here. I wish we had two wins, though.”
WAS STAYING OUT THE RIGHT CALL? “Obviously not. We got beat.”
ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT WAS THE CALL? “I felt like it was 50/50. We were gonna put two on and then at the last-minute we decided to stay out. I thought six cars was gonna be enough. It was a similar situation to what Brad had in the heat race – 30 or so laps on the tires, he stayed, he was able to manage, but the difference is it’s a heat race to the feature and what are people willing to do in a heat race versus a million dollars for the win at the All-Star Race. That changes the game a little bit and we didn’t fire off as fast as we needed to the first eight laps of that run. We didn’t make the right call. We go down together. We do all this stuff together. We had the best car and we did most everything right. We just made one decision off, so we’ll take second. What does second pay? Not a million, I guess.”
IT SOUNDED LIKE YOU WERE ABOUT TO TELL PAUL YOU DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO? “I didn’t know. I did say I don’t know. Nobody knows. If eight cars stay out, yeah, he probably doesn’t get to us. If he gets held up by a couple cars before that, do we get him? Maybe. The 1 kind of let him go and I think you know what he’s doing. I think he was hoping that he’d get to me and then we’d get all roughed up and he could sneak one by. I mean, it’s the right call, but I needed Ross to do Ross things and he let him go. That didn’t help my situation.”
YOU SAID THAT THINGS CARRY ON WITH BELL, SO HOW DO YOU HANDLE THIS MOVING FORWARD? “I just race him the same way. That’s all it is. I mean, like I said, we’re racing for a million dollars. I get it, but we race each other every week and we’re like elephants, we don’t forget anything.”
BELL SAID THIS WAS THE BEST SHORT TRACK IN NASCAR. DO YOU AGREE? “With a gimmick caution, yeah. Sure.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 51 Morton Buildings Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I had a lot of fun. Obviously, it wasn’t the result we wanted, but I kind of felt like we were better than where we finished. We tried some strategy there at the end to try and have a shot there, but tires mattered more than maybe I thought they would. It was just such a fun time to be back in the Cup Series racing against a lot of my friends and seeing a lot of my friends around the garage. I felt like we made the car better and better throughout the weekend. The last caution, obviously it was the promoter’s caution and that probably took some spots for us, but I’m really proud of the effort and thankful for Morton Buildings, Rick Ware Racing, Ford Performance and all that for the opportunity. Hopefully, we’ll do it again some more.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I was just driving too hard. We were all running up towards the wall and I stepped over the cushion and bounced off the wall and broke the right-front shock it looks like. That ended our day.”
WAS THE TOE LINK BROKEN AS WELL? “Maybe, I don’t know. I thought it was a toe link, but somebody said the shock, so I haven’t really had a chance to know.”
WHAT CAN YOU TAKE OUT OF THESE LAST TWO WEEKS MOVING FORWARD? “We’re connecting things for sure, we just haven’t connected everything and when we do that we’ll be dangerous.”
ALL-STAR OPEN
Ford Finishing Results:
6th – Zane Smith
9th – Cole Custer
11th – Ryan Preece
12th – Todd Gilliland
16th – Cody Ware
17th – Noah Gragson
Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 4 Rural King Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Front Row Motorsports, won the fan vote for the third straight year and will advance to the NASCAR All-Star Race.
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Rural King Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It means a lot. I’m very grateful to have all of the support from the fans and I feel like we’ve got a pretty good race car. We struggled. I lost power steering in the Open race, so we’re gonna try and get that better for the All-Star Race. It’s such a cool atmosphere here and such a cool experience. I’m very lucky to be able to be a part of it.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Boston Common Golf Ford Mustang Dark Horse –WHAT HAPPENED ON THE RESTART AND RUNNING OVER THE RESTART BOX? “I don’t think it was a restart, I think it’s a cone that’s non-existent. I don’t know. You can’t even see it right now. A rule is a rule. I understand that, but at the end of the day I made the mistake. I’m just frustrated with the decision.”
HOCEVAR WAS GOING TO GIVE YOU THE POINT BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOU. DOES THAT MAKE IT HURT WORSE? “No. What are you gonna do? There’s nothing you can do. Maybe we need to rethink how we do it if there’s a lot of rubber caked up on it. Ultimately, we had a fast Boston Common Golf Ford Mustang.”
