Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Test Session — North Wilkesboro Speedway
Tuesday, January 13, 2026
NASCAR conducted a Cup Series test session today at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where the first series points race in 30 years will be held at the track on July 19. Ford Mustang Dark Horse drivers Joey Logano, Zane Smith and Josh Berry visited the infield media center and discussed what they hope to learn, along with their thoughts on the new championship format that was announced yesterday.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE NEW FORMAT CHANGES? “Honestly, I’m OK with whatever they tell us because the rules are the same for everybody, just like they were before. Everyone started with the same set of rules. We all knew what we had to do to try to win a championship. Now, we have a different set of rules with all of us starting at zero again, and we have to change the way that we go win the championship. The strategy of how you race and prepare and all those things is different. There’s no doubt it’s very different. You just have to kind of go back to the drawing board and do something else. That’s fine. I don’t really care. Personally, I was one of the rare people that liked the old one just from a fan perspective. I enjoyed it, but if the majority doesn’t like that, then, sure, we’ll change it and we’ll go race another way and that’s OK with me, too. That’s kind of where I’m at with it.”
WILL IT BE HARDER TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP NOW AND IS IT HARDER TO REPEAT UNDER THIS NEW FORMAT? “I don’t know that it’s fair to say it’s easier or it’s harder. I mean, it’s hard to win a championship no matter any way you look at it, but it’s different. There’s no doubt it’s different. The things that stand out to me immediately are the bad days are gonna be harder to recover. Consistency is gonna pay off more. Looking at it, I think if you’re 12th or so going into the playoffs, I don’t think you can win it from that far back. You’re gonna be 70-plus points back without knowing the real numbers, and you’re gonna have to make that up against the best cars in 10 weeks. Boy, that’s gonna be tough. That’s gonna take a lot to make that happen. You’re gonna have to be really, really, really good, really special to do that, so that just tells me that you’ve got to be pretty solid throughout the regular season to make sure you’re within that top five or so when the playoffs start. I think it’s a pretty big jump to get yourself into championship contention if you’re too far back. The game has changed. Like I said, and it will change the way we do everything all the way through. It’ll change what we see on the racetrack for racing and what the fans see. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out. It’ll definitely be interesting.”
THERE HAS BEEN A LEADERSHIP CHANGE AT NASCAR. ANY CONCERN ABOUT STEVE PHELPS NOT BEING HERE ANYMORE? “That’s probably a better question for NASCAR leadership, but do feel like there is some depth there. O’Donnell has been around for a long time. A lot of those guys have been around for a long time and worked in different departments. I think they’ve been able to see how the inner workings of the sport and how it works. I assume they’re gonna be fine, but I also don’t work there everyday. I don’t work for NASCAR to see all of the challenges. I’m sure it’s a challenge at the moment, but over time I’m sure they’ll figure it out and I’m confident they’ll be fine.”
HOW QUICKLY DO YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS WITH THE SHORT TRACK PACKAGE FOR WHEN THE CHASE STARTS? “We’re here working on some stuff and it will be interesting to see what kind of changes they’re gonna make rules package-wise. Obviously, we’re doing camber stuff today as well as some stuffers and diffuser strakes and all those things. I don’t know if there’s a for sure answer of what we’re gonna do yet, but it’s a long season. I know that. There’s a lot of ups and downs. There are times when teams look great early in the year and they fall off. It’s really hard to stay up there the whole time.”
DOES HAVING ELIMINATION RACES GO AWAY CHANGE THE RACING? IF SO, HOW? “Yeah, it definitely does. When you had multiple times throughout the year a lot of teams and drivers doing desperate things. Desperate people do desperate things and it was a true test of what your morals are in the race car and what you’re OK with and then your memory is always reminding yourself of what’s happened to you. All these things. It was a true challenge mentally deciding what you’re OK with and what you weren’t. I’ll be honest with you, it’s a hard place to be for all the teams of what’s acceptable, and everybody has a different line on what that is. Now that type of do-or-die moment isn’t gonna be here as much anymore, and that’s what it seems like the fans wanted was to have more consistency pay off. Those situations won’t be there as much. It’s one thing if you’re racing for a win or something like that, but those moments where you have to get one point, what are you willing to do? And we’ve seen that happen multiple times throughout the last 12 years – every single year where they would do something big to get to the next round. I mean, the first time they had that playoff format it was Newman riding the wall in Phoenix to get in. Those are the desperate things the people were doing that I don’t see is going to be like that in a lot of scenarios anymore.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THIS MORNING AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACHIEVE THIS AFTERNOON WITH THE CAR? “We’re just working through some changes that we wanted to try. It’s an opportunity to try things that you don’t get to try on typical race weekends when all you usually get are wedge and heights and bar arms. Now, you can change some big things that you typically don’t get to try. So, we’re just trying to get some direction on some of those things, and then obviously this afternoon is more toward the new rules package and options and what those could look like.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT WAS IT LIKE A YEAR AGO AT THIS TIME WITH ALL OF THE UNCERTAINTY THAT WAS HANGING OVER FRONT ROW? NOW THAT IT’S ALL OVER, IT’S A NON-ISSUE NOW. “From a driver’s standpoint, in my position, obviously there was a lot out of my control and we were always just kind of reading through Twitter and social media about updates and what-not. I mean, I’d be lying to you if I said that I’m not sleeping better now and knowing that my future is clear. That all feels great and, yeah, through last year there was that weird deal that we were going through, but, then again, at the same time I had a one-year contract, hoping for an extension, so I was able to get that probably halfway through this summer. Obviously, that felt great and then I was just hoping that the lawsuit was gonna get figured out, which, fortunately it did. It’s gonna be a win-win for everyone. It’s nice now.”
THE NEW FORMAT ELIMINATES THE WIN AND YOU’RE IN THE PLAYOFFS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT AND DOES IT CHANGE YOUR APPROACH TO MAKING THE PLAYOFFS? “I think the changes are great. I think it’s gonna obviously reward consistency, which is great. I think this year we weren’t great in points and it was a pretty inconsistent year, especially the back half, but the front half was pretty good for us. With the format that we’ve had, I think we missed out by like three or four spots, so I think it’ll be great for us and I feel confident that we’ll have a fighting chance to get into the Chase and fight for that.”
WHAT IS CONNOR ZILISCH IN FOR DURING HIS FIRST YEAR IN CUP? “Connor actually hangs around a group that we kind of hang around with and he’s a great kid. He’s obviously a tremendous talent, but when I was in Truck and part-time Xfinity I was always warned and told and heard about your first year in Cup. There’s no preparing for it. You just have to go do it. I think it’s gonna be no different for him. Obviously, he’s gonna have some great speed on the road courses and I think he’ll be fast, it’s just way different. When you’re in a really good car, you go from 10-15 guys that you have to worry about to now where it’s literally first through last. Everyone is really strong and incredibly close. The attention to Saturdays will go, I think, a long way for him. That was something that I had to go through and learn. In the other ranks, qualifying is always important but if you are a little off in qualifying or slip up, you’re gonna be 12th maybe. If you do that in Cup, you could easily be in the thirties and that just makes for a long day and a tough start to Sunday. Obviously, I’m hoping the best for him and hope he has a long future on Sunday, I just think racing on Sunday is a whole other animal that you just have to experience.”
HOW DO YOU THINK NOT HAVING ELIMINATIONS WILL CHANGE THE OVERALL RACING? “I don’t think it’s gonna change a whole lot of the racing. I think you’d see the guys that would play some strategy to hopefully try to win and as you were getting pretty close to the cutoff, or whatever you want to call it, I’m just trying to do some strategy, but I feel regardless you’re gonna see guys that do some of these crazy strategies that you see because it still works out for them to get a good result, so I don’t think you’ll see a whole lot different there. I think you’re just gonna see the guys that are really consistent, that are just fast week in and week out be rewarded in a better way.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOUR VEGAS WIN LAST YEAR PUNCHED YOUR PLAYOFF TICKET. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT SCENARIO BEING REMOVED? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOUR TEAM? “Ultimately, it’s the same for everybody – the system. We know that we’re gonna have to be a little bit better than we were last year. I don’t know exactly where we would have ended up with the new system versus last year, but we just need to be more consistent. Overall, I’m in support of what we’re doing. I think it’s a good change and we’ll see how it all sorts out. For us, the goals are still the same – just go out every week and run the best we can and the points will take care of themselves if we do that.”
HAVE YOU SEEN ANY CHANGE WITH WHAT YOU’RE TESTING TODAY? “It’s always hard at these tests because this is best-case scenario. It’s cold. It’s warming up now, so maybe we’ll get a better idea of it in the afternoon. Obviously, it was really cold this morning. I would say at 10 o’clock this morning if you would have told me there was a motor change, that’s the only way I would have known. There’s just a lot of grip and it’s hard to tell, but as the track rubbers up and it gets hotter, those things are gonna expose themselves more, and I think it’ll be a little bit of a change, but I’m not sure it’s gonna be a huge one.”
HOW HAS THE SURFACE AGED THROUGH THE YEARS? “It’s definitely starting to come in a little bit. I think we saw even in the All-Star Race that the groove widened out a lot, so I think we’re gonna continue to see that. I think even today the groove is getting pushed up pretty high in one and two. I don’t know if we have enough cars on the track to move the groove up in three and four like we probably will in July, but I think it’s gonna continue to age in and ultimately the place is progressively banked and I think it’s gonna make multi-groove racing.”
WHAT DOES THIS SEASON HAVE IN STORE FOR THE FANS WITH ALL THE NEW ELEMENTS? “I think it should be exciting. It seems like that public perception has been that a lot of fans wanted a different format for the Chase. It should be exciting for them to follow and, for us, like I said earlier, it’s really just business as usual. We just want to go out and try to run well each and every week. For me personally, this is first time I’ve ever had the same crew chief the second year, so even being here today it just feels like I’m picking right up from last year. You’re not learning new people with new communication and learning new guys, so I think that’s a positive for us and we’re excited to keep going today and get to Bowman Gray in a couple of weeks.”
DOES MORE HORSEPOWER MEAN MORE ENTERTAINMENT? “Yeah, sure. Of course it does.”
HOW DO YOU THINK THE RACING WILL CHANGE FROM A WEEK TO WEEK BASIS WITH SOME OF THE RISKS DRIVERS USED TO TAKE JUST TO GAIN A POINT POSSIBLY GOING AWAY? “I saw Blaney make that point and ultimately I agree with him. I think we’ve seen times when some moves have gotten made and it’s always, ‘I’ve got to win.’ I think that will change the dynamic a little bit. Wins still mean a lot. Winning in this series is a big deal. Wins still matter a lot, but it’ll be interesting to see if that changes a lot of people’s perceptions of how they race, especially when you look at superspeedway races and things like that. If you only have to win, that changes how you race versus if you go to Daytona or Talladega and walk out of there with a top five and some points would be a good day in this new system, so I think it should change how people think. It’s hard to say if that will show up on track or not, but, ultimately, you’ve got to limit your bad days if you want to have a chance at this. I think that it should mean consistency is more and finishing races is more important. I guess that’s what everybody wants, right?”
FANS GOT TIRED OF HEARING DRIVERS SAY “IT WAS A GOOD POINTS DAY.” HOW IS THAT CONVERSATION GOING TO GO THIS SUMMER WHEN SOMEBODY FINISHES THIRD AT POCONO AND THEY SAY THEY HAD A GOOD POINTS DAY? “It’ll probably be like 2003. That’s what everybody used to say then. Hopefully, that’s not the case, but, ultimately, that’s what everybody has been asking for is the top guys to be at the top and less randomness, must-win and win and your in and all the chaos. They want it to be more structured and about consistency. Hopefully, that’s not the case, but in a year from now we might be sitting here saying that.”
WHAT ARE YOU AND YOUR TEAM LOOKING TO DO AS FAR AS CHANGES TO YOUR MUSTANG THIS AFTERNOON? “Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what exactly they have planned. I think there are some small changes with camber and springs that they’ve talked about maybe doing, but I’m not exactly sure if that’s definitely happening or not. I think that we’re working on some of that stuff just to see how it reacts to our car in case they decide to make some rule changes, I think.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LATE MODEL RACING NEXT YEAR? “At this point, I don’t have anything planned. I haven’t really put a lot of thought into it. Probably the highest one would be going back to Nashville for the race before the Cup race there – that Broadway race. Outside of that, I don’t have any plans.”
THIS TRACK HAS GREAT HISTORY. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HERE AND THEN HEADING TO BOWMAN GRAY IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS? “It’s a lot of fun. It’s a great facility. We’ve seen really good turnouts from the fans each time we’ve raced here, and I think some solid races. I think we’re excited to see it have a full-length race, 400 laps here in the summer. I think it should put on a great show and hopefully we have great turnout and a great race.”
