Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Racing Media Availability
Saturday, May 30, 2026
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse, spoke to assembled media today at the Nashville Superspeedway ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400. Blaney is the defending champion of the Nashville race and sits third in the NASCAR Cup Series Driver Championship with one victory this season (Straight Talk Wireless 500 at Phoenix Raceway in March).
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU AND BUBBA [WALLACE] DID THE ‘RACIN’ WITH THE BOYS’ PODCAST, THE FIRST EPISODE. WHAT WAS IT LIKE SHOWING YOUR PERSONALITIES AND GETTING A NEW AUDIENCE INTERESTED IN NASCAR THAT MAY NOT KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT. “I’ve gotten to know Taylor [Lewan] a little bit over the years, and they are really, really good guys. I enjoyed watching them play when they were in the NFL. I thought it was a good concept, a good audience. It’s always fun for me when we can go talk to other athletes, that play other sports, you know, like what are the differences? Where are the similarities, how is your process like? I feel like you can relate on some things and some things are massively different. So, it is always fun to hear their thoughts on things. And we kind of cut up some too. So, yeah, we had a good time a couple days ago talking to those guys.”
YOU WERE INVOLVED IN A TEASER FOR THE SAN DIEGO RACE. WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT FROM THAT? “Yeah, that was a lot of fun to go do. We went out there after Vegas, myself, Zillich, Noah, Briscoe, Bell, and Hocevar, were out there, and we spent like three days filming this deal for Amazon. It was a lot of work, for sure. But I think it’s going to turn out great. You know, the base, they were super inviting to us to kind of do what we needed to do, all that. I can’t believe some of the things they let us do on the base. But they were great. You know, I just think they’re doing a great job of promoting that race the way it should be, because it’s going be a really big deal. And I’m looking forward to getting out there. So, I don’t know when it comes out… like, the whole thing comes out. Maybe the week of the race, but, we got to do some really neat things. We got some insights, and the history of the base, and got to tour a lot of neat things. I’ve always found I’ve been really fortunate in my life to visit a lot of different branches of military, and to be able to go around the base and see some of the amazing things that they have, a lot of cool aircraft, aircraft carriers, stuff like that. That stuff just kind of geeks me out a little bit, you know? Just getting to talk to all the folks that are on the base, and, you know, the soldiers that are there every single day and show our appreciation of what they do. It’s neat. So, I’m excited for everybody to see that. I think it’s going to turn out well.”
NOW THAT WE’RE IN DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE REGULAR SEASON, HOW DOES THAT IMPACT THE URGENCY, OR THE FEELING, AS THE CHASE GETS CLOSER AND CLOSER? “Personally, for me, I don’t really feel like there is a change in urgency or outlook on all that stuff. I’ve just always kind of been in the, week-to-week process of things, you know, how are we doing? How are things going? What are we doing well, and, you know, what do we need to do to be better? I feel like our group has done a good job of excelling at the things we do well and trying to pinpoint places where we can be better and trying to fix those things that we can be better at. So, hopefully we’re on a good track there. But looking forward to coming back to this place [Nashville Superspeedway]. It’s obviously been good us last year. I feel like this higher horsepower package-lower downforce package has been pretty good to us this year at Darlington and Bristol. I look forward to seeing what we got. It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through the regular season. As far as our group, just keep plugging away like normal.”
THIS WEEK, RYAN PREECE HAD HIS APPEAL HEARD AND IN DENYING IT, THE PANEL STATED THAT NEITHER SIDE MADE THEIR POINT, BUT BASED ON THEIR DECISION, WHAT THEY SAID WAS THAT HIS COMMENTS PROVED HE WASN’T GOING TO CUT SOMEONE A BREAK. SO, DO YOU RACE WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT YOUR COMMENTS IN OR OUT OF THE CAR CAN ESSENTIALLY BE USED AGAINST YOU, OR IS THAT SETTING A NEW PRECEDENT GOING FORWARD OF WHAT SOMEBODY SAYS IS NOW GOING TO BE UP FOR PENALTY? “Yeah, I will be completely honest with you. I didn’t keep up with that at all this week, like, I didn’t know that the appeal was denied, and I guess it was. I don’t know. I equate to that like… If you’re going to commit a crime, and you say you’re going to commit a crime, and you do commit the crime. If you’re in a courtroom, and they are like, well, you said you were going to do it and you did it. Hard to argue against that. I don’t know. It gives NASCAR and them a way to, like, well, you said you were going to do it, you did it, there was malicious intent behind it. But I also think there are some things that are done in bad faith, that are, you know, never spoken on the radio, that I see. I’m like, maybe that should have been a penalty, but there’s no evidence to go about it. You know, you could just say, ‘well, I kind of got out of shape, but I didn’t mean to do it.’ I don’t know. Do I wish that it was a little bit more like hands off and kind of let drivers do what they want to do without having in the back of their mind that they going to get fined or penalized in the points. Yeah, probably. I would, but, at the end of the day, I don’t really think it’s good for it either to have guys out here jumping guys. You know? So, I don’t know. I wish it was; I would probably be of the way of just let us deal with it.”
YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT THE SECOND HALF OF THIS REGULAR SEASON, IT SEEMS LIKE THE COKE 600 HAS ALWAYS BEEN KIND OF THE BENCHMARK FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE, OF LET’S GET THROUGH THE COKE 600 AND WE CAN SEE WHERE EVERYBODY KIND OF STACKS UP. WE SHOULD KNOW WHAT THE GARAGE HAS TYPE OF THING. SO, IF YOU WERE TO ZOOM OUT, DOES ANYTHING STAND OUT WITH WHERE EVERYONE IS RIGHT NOW, OR EVEN, AT LEAST, WITH YOUR RACE TEAM, HAVING GOTTEN TO THIS PART OF THE SEASON? “I don’t think it is a secret that our strong suit hasn’t been the mile-and-a-halves. It’s a place where we have to kind of do everything right and execute really good, to run fifth. You know, the Toyota’s been really strong at those race tracks. It’s just, you have figure it out at those kind of places, and, you know, they’ve done a good job with that, and we have some room to make up. But I’ve been happy with how most of everything else we’ve been doing. Our road course and short track programs have been pretty good. Speedways have been pretty good. Yeah, there’s some things we still have to address and clean up. You know, we’re always looking at that stuff, but I feel like we’ve done a good job of being where we’re at in points and having some struggles and issues and things like that. But, yeah, I feel like I’d give our score an A- right now.”
ASIDE FROM KEVIN HARVICK, YOU’RE THE ONLY GUY WHO HAS WON POCONO WITHIN THE LAST 10 YEARS, SINCE 2016. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT’S BEEN SUCH A TOUGH TRACK FOR THE BRAND OVER THAT PERIOD OF TIME? “For Ford? Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t really have a great answer for you. You know, I feel like the Fords have been in a position to win that race a few more times than that over the years. It just hasn’t really worked out. We were fortunate to win there a couple years ago. So, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think it is a strong suit for us, but that race is tough. There is a lot of pit strategy involved in it. You know, it’s a place where you can pit and not go a lap down so it’s interesting in how you play that out. I feel like our cars have been competing there, the Fords have, but sometimes it just doesn’t really work out for us.
YOU’RE THIRD IN POINTS, AND THE OTHER DRIVERS AT PENSKE ARE RIGHT ON THE PLAYOFF BUBBLE. HOW WOULD YOU SAY THE MOOD IS RIGHT NOW AT PENSKE? “I feel like those guys have had some pretty big misfortunes this year that has kind of put them where they are at. I think they’ve run a lot better than what it’s showing in the points. I know Joey and Austin are doing a really good job of trying to utilize everything they can week in and week out. I just feel like they run into some problems that really aren’t what they’re doing. And it’s really stuck. And I been there before, and it just kind of seems like nothing’s going your way, and those guys are kind of in that right now. But I think they’re working hard to get where they need to be, and, like I said, I think the mood is pretty good. The mood is trying to figure out how do we get these guys where they need to be, and just fix some solid runs together. And also, you know, how do we kind of keep our position where we’re at, trying to fight for a second with the 11? I think the mood is, is decent. It could be better, but it’s definitely not glum over there right now. I feel like, Team Penske, our mindset is always head down, doing the work, no matter if we’re one, two, three, in points, or we’re 16, 17, 18 in points. Like it’s, the mood doesn’t really change. It’s always just a trying to figure out how to be better week in and week out.”
YOU DIDN’T GET ANY LAPS IN DOVER DUE TO THE EARLY ACCIDENT. DO YOU FEEL THAT PUTS YOU AND THE 12 TEAM AT A DISADVANTAGE HERE AT NASHVILLE? THAT OTHER FOLKS HAVE 350 LAPS AT A TRACK SIMILAR TO NASHVILLE BEFORE YOU GOT HERE? “I mean, honestly, I haven’t thought about that until now. I don’t think so. You know, yeah, Dover has some similarities to it with this place, but I definitely don’t think it’s a massive, massive deficit. I was happy we were able to get back out on the racetrack at Dover even though we were pretty banged up. And we could change stuff in our car, like, maybe, kind of try this, or something like that. So, I feel like we learned a little bit, maybe not as much as other guys, but, I do feel like, I feel like every single week, no matter if the tracks are similar or not, like, it’s a whole new challenge and a whole new beast. Like if you take a thing, it’s parts and pieces. ideas from certain tracks and apply to others, and maybe they work, maybe they don’t, but I feel like your main learning is that you’re at the track for that x amount of time we have for practice and your preparation through the week. So, while I would have like to run 350 laps of Dover, we didn’t get to, and we just tried to learn the best we could. We’ll see if, uh, see what happens.”
