Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Autotrader 400 — EchoPark Speedway
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Ford Unofficial Finishing Results:
7th – Zane Smith
9th – Ryan Preece
10th – Ryan Blaney
14th – Noah Gragson
15th – Chris Buescher
17th – Brad Keselowski
18th – Joey Logano
25th – Todd Gilliland
26th – Austin Cindric
38th – Josh Berry
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Aaron’s Rent To Own Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “My Aaron’s Rent To Own Ford Mustang didn’t start out great. It had speed, but it was a lot to manage, and then as we got through the race we just kept working on it and I felt like we made big gains at one point in time, and then we got to the front row and I had a loose left-rear tire after we took right side tires, so I have no idea how that happened. I’m just glad we didn’t wreck because it was a handful, and then after that I had a little right-front damage, but was able to charge back up through the field and have a shot at it somewhat. My gut told me to take the bottom there and it was looking really good for a second, but I just needed a little bit more help. I’m proud of everyone.” HOW HAVE THESE FIRST TWO RACES GONE FOR YOU? “Great. I wish we scored stage points today because that would have been great, but with that said, we’ve had a couple of great results and a couple great weekends. Hopefully, we can keep going.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Kroger/Red Baron Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “For how we initially thought the race was gonna be, we were not very good. We made some adjustments and our Kroger/Red Barone Ford Mustang Dark Horse drove way better, so I think moving forward to come back here to Atlanta I feel way more confident and I think we can have quite a bit more success.” YOU WERE ON THE OUTSIDE OF ROW 4 ON THE FINAL RESTART. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? “I thought with how the 77 was driving the entire day I figured that he was gonna cause a stack up on the bottom. Lesson learned. Just take the short line. The outside had been working so well for us all day and it just didn’t work out that last one, but it’s nice to be able to be in position to where you can take experiences like this and think, ‘OK, next time I’d probably change the way I think about lining up.’”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We had a little bit of a different strategy there in the second stage. We topped off once and then that gave us the ability to take less gas and two just to try and get some track position and we had it. We had good control of it for a while and then just lost control of it there and that was the end of it.” DID YOU HAVE ANY OPPORTUNITY ON THE FINAL RESTART STARTING IN ROW FIVE OF THE OUTSIDE LANE? “You’re looking for lanes to go. You’re looking for stuff like that, but I was just kind of hemmed in there and trying to take the runs. Sometimes there aren’t any, but overall it’s nice to finish and have a pretty solid day.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was an up-and-down day. It didn’t end great, but there were times we had a lot of speed. We were just missing a little bit of handling to keep it there at the end.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Body Guard Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We kind of survived it and got the handling a little bit better, especially as night time came, and just wasn’t able to move our lane there at the end and I got bottled up on the bottom. It should have been a lot better.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It looked like I faded up a little bit to give the 20 room and Ty went to make a move it looked like and we just got together. It’s just a racing deal at Atlanta.” IT’S TOUGH TO GIVE UP POINTS EARLY IN THE YEAR. “Yeah, in this style of racing I think all of us just want to make it out with a decent finish. We were able to do that last week and we were able to do that in the Duel, but not so lucky this time.” WHAT WAS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON WHAT HAPPENED? “It’s just tight racing there. It’s Atlanta. It’s always gonna be close with a lot of tight moves. I had to move up a little bit to give the 20 room and Ty went to make a move off the 48 and we just barely got together. It felt like we were pretty close to making it through, but unfortunately we didn’t quite make it.” YOUR CAR SEEMED TO BE PRETTY GOOD. “Yeah, I felt like I was really strong at the beginning. We got pretty tight at the end of the first run and tried to make it better. We probably made it worse at the start of that run. which you lose a little bit of track position and your car handles so much worse that it’s hard to tell. That’s why we all race so hard to stay up front is just because the cars drive so bad in midpack, but yet you have no choice. Overall, the guys did a good job. We had a really good car here last year. I think we got a little bit of work to do coming back here in the summer, but, overall, the guys did a really good job here. Hopefully, one of the other guys gets the win.”
