Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
YellaWood 500 – Talladega Superspeedway
Sunday, October 19, 2025
NCS RACE TOP-10 UNOFFICIAL FINISHERS:
1st – Chase Briscoe
2nd – Todd Gilliland
3rd – Ty Gibbs
4th – Bubba Wallace
5th – Cole Custer
6th – Carson Hocevar
7th – Tyler Reddick
8th – Christopher Bell
9th – Zane Smith
10th – Brad Keselowski
REMAINING FORD FINISHERS:
15th – Ryan Preece
16th – Joey Logano
18th – Casey Mears
23rd – Ryan Blaney
30th – Chris Buescher
31st – Cody Ware
33rd – Josh Berry
34th – Austin Cindric
36th – Noah Gragson
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DID YOU THINK THE RACE WENT? “I’m definitely excited, but maybe wishing a little bit what I could’ve done differently. I’m sure in 10 or 15 minutes it will sink in and I’ll be pretty happy. I mean, that’s just the dream, right? To be in contention to win a race like this, and I certainly think we had everything to get it done in our Ford Mustang. We just came up a bit short.” IT SEEMS LIKE AT TRACKS LIKE THESE YOU WORK WELL WITH YOUR TEAMMATES? “Yeah, it happened to work out right that I saw my teammates a lot today, and we work well together. I’m really proud of them and really happy with that. At the end, when it was me and Zane on the bottom lane, I was really hoping we could just get clear and take a one-two finish there, but it never comes that easy. We’ll keep building on all of those aspects for Martinsville and Phoenix.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 RaceTrac/Sysco Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was awesome. We’ve been really good at the speedways this year, and we just bought our time and were there at the very end, trying to be smart. Our guys have brought really fast Ford Mustangs to the track. It’s been fun and so awesome to have Sysco on the hood this weekend at the racetrack and giving them a good run. We wish we were five spots better, but it was definitely a great way to get a solid finish here and hopefully carry that momentum into Martinsville.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We came down to that next to last restart and it just didn’t come together.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – IT SEEMS LIKE YOU GUYS LOST CONTROL OF THE BOTTOM LANE, WHAT HAPPENED? “It’s pretty apparent the second we lost control of the race. I’m only driving one car, so I couldn’t really control the race. The car behind me was saving gas, that didn’t help us and killed the whole bottom lane. Cars were pulling in front of us and we were just getting demoted from the first two cars in line to the back of the line.” WAS THIS RACE ONE THAT GOT AWAY FROM PENSKE? “We just can’t be saving gas at the end of the race. Ryan was not, but I was frustrated. You just get demoted in the lane as cars move to the front. You’re helpless. You’re sitting there just driving in circles knowing the right thing to do and just can’t do it. I drive one car.” NEXT UP IS MARTINSVILLE, WHICH YOU MUST NOT SEE AS A BAD TRACK FOR YOU GUYS? “Martinsville’s not a bad track for us. We just have a simple point of view at this point, it’s all or nothing. Stage points aren’t going to matter. Nothing else is going to matter but winning.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Not the finish we wanted. We didn’t do what we needed to do and we didn’t get help when we needed it. Now we have to go win next week.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/Thomas’ High Protein Bagels Ford Mustang Dark Horse – ABOUT THE INCIDENT THAT ENDED HIS DAY WHILE LEADING “We had a really fast Ford and we were up there where we needed to be and just took a bad push down the back there. It ended up being a hard hit. The car was really fast and the RFK guys did a great job today. Just the way these things keep going. Ultimately, it was another fast Ford Mustang here. I appreciate the team doing such a good job and we will just try again.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT LED TO YOU GUYS BEING A PART OF OUR INCIDENT? “We went through the first cycle and it didn’t work out for us, I thought we did the right stuff there to get some stage points, that’s our priority. Yeah, so then it was just seeing whether we could get it fixed enough to go back out or not, but we had a steering rack issue so I couldn’t drive it out.” DO YOU THINK YOU HAD A WINNING CAR TODAY IF NOT FOR THAT INCIDENT? “I don’t see why not, our Discount Tire Ford Mustang was really fast, and I felt like we positioned ourselves well for the cycle but maybe didn’t have enough cars there.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT INCIDENT? “We executed that pit stop really well and we were up there with Joey. He was running second in the bottom lane and I was just trying to control our lane from the lead, and the No. 43 was pushing really hard. You usually get those pushes late in the race in the third stage, but he was just pushing hard. It’s unfortunate. The back straightaway here is really rough and I was pushed in the wrong area and started wheelbarrowing down the backstretch before he caught me.” ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED TO FIND YOURSELF OUT OF THE RACE THIS EARLY? “Yeah, it’s just unfortunate. We have two more opportunities to end the season with strong races, but we were looking like we had a lot of speed.” CAN YOU ELABORATE MORE ON THE PUSH YOU GOT? “Yeah, I was just trying to keep even with the No. 16. There’s a couple of times where we both got clear of him. He was pushing really hard in the corner, places that guys don’t normally push in the first stage, whether it’s through the trioval or the corners. It just seemed a little bit aggressive in the first stage and we still had nine laps left so that was definitely a bummer.”
