Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Coke Zero Sugar 400 — Daytona International Speedway
Friday, August 28, 2026
RYAN PREECE PUNCHES TICKET TO THE CHASE WITH DRAMATIC DAYTONA WIN
- Ryan Preece registered his first NASCAR Cup Series win with tonight’s victory.
- Five Ford Mustang drivers will compete in the Chase: Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece.
- Ford has won five of the last seven Cup races: Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney (2 each), and Preece (1)
- The win is the 144th NASCAR Cup Series triumph for car owner Jack Roush and the seventh under the Roush Fenway Keselowski banner.
- Preece is the 92nd different driver to win a Cup race with Ford, and the first new winner since Josh Berry won at Las Vegas (2025).
- Today’s win is Ford’s 754th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Kroger/OIKOS Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A WINNER IN A POINTS RACE? “Unreal. The Northeast is gonna burn it down tonight because when we won the Clash all I heard was, ‘That was a non-points race.’ Well, now we’ve won a points race and now we’re in the playoffs. We came with our back against the wall and we fought. That was a heavyweight fight and we were never out. Thank you to OIKOS, Kroger, Fastenal, Mr. Jack Roush, everybody at RFK, Brad Keselowski, Tad Geschickter, all our friends and family, Ford for the awesome race car, Doug Yates for the awesome motor. I’m just super, super proud. I’m proud to be a Northeast guy.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN HERE AT DAYTONA, A PLACE WHERE YOU’VE HAD SOME SCARY MOMENTS? “I don’t know, man. I thought I was dead three years ago. My wife thought I was dead. To come here and win at a place that almost ended my career means a lot.”
HOW DO YOU REGROUP NOW AND GO TO DARLINGTON? “We’re gonna fight. We’re gonna fight hard like tonight.”
MORE RYAN PREECE POST-RACE QUOTES:
YOUR CREW CHIEF, DERRICK FINLEY, SAID YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO WIN ALL 10 CHASE RACES. HOW DOES THAT SOUND? “That’s the confidence I want to see out of the D-Rock! We started off consistent. We had a bit of a slump there in May and June and we sort of found our way over the past few weeks, especially last week. We were a contender at Loudon. We were a contender tonight. Denny and those guys have been really fast, but it would be great to go on one hell of a run.”
YOU WERE THE FIRST ONE AT THE DRIVER’S MEETING TODAY. YOU WERE READY FOR TONIGHT. TAKE US THROUGH THOSE FINAL LAPS. “I watched the movie The Replacements and I forgot what his first name was, but Falco and at the end he said, ‘Winners want the ball.’ So give me the ball. Derrick gave me the ball tonight and I gave the ball to him, so, for me, yeah, we were locked in. There’s just no ifs ands or buts. It was 100 percent about doing nothing other than putting ourselves in position and if we wrecked for the lead, we wrecked for the lead. If I rode around in 30th and didn’t have a chance to win, I’d be mad at myself right now.”
WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT FOR OVERTIME? “I actually liked it. Part of me liked it because sometimes there are only so many moves you can make. I didn’t like it because the Fords were obviously gonna be taking allegiance to the bottom and I was gonna be the odd man out, but sometimes being the odd man out isn’t a bad thing and you just have to be a racer and you’ve got to use your instincts and do the things that are right.”
WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN THEY TOLD YOU THAT YOU HAD WON AND MADE THE CHASE? “I’m not gonna have a voice tomorrow. Before the race, part of me – even last week – I thought we had a contending car that was capable of winning. I even kind of got choked up last week, and I’m not an emotional person. I am but I’m not. I don’t cry. I’m really shocked right now that I can even speak because there’s really no words to truly tell people how difficult this road has been. How many times people doubt you, but then I have a group of supporters, people that are from the northeast that have 100 percent been behind me all the way, so to stand here in Victory Lane and be able to share this moment with them even though they’re not here is amazing. This is a big win for the northeast. This is a big win for Connecticut. I’m a diehard New Englander, so it’s a big deal.”
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET REVENGE ON THIS TRACK AND COME OUT OF HERE ON TOP? “I’m just glad that Daytona decided to love me the way I loved it. A big day for us at RFK. A big day for me. A big day for my family and I’m gonna drink quite a few beers and celebrate it with my friends and family and have a lot of calls tomorrow, but Monday the work is looking forward to trying to make a playoff run.”
WHAT DID IT MEAN TO HAVE YOUR WIFE AND THE KIDS AND THE DOG UP THERE TO GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN IN VICTORY LANE? “To be able to bring my kids to Victory Lane and my wife to Victory Lane – Heather has been there from when I was broke and trying to win a Stafford race on a Friday night so I can get my 25 percent and make $400, to her not knowing that I borrowed money and I had to pay it back somehow, to using her credit card to go get shoes at Iowa because I forgot my shoes and they were wore out that time in 2017, to moving down to North Carolina away from her friends and away from her family to chase a dream with me. Man, this is what racers dream of. It wasn’t given. It was earned. A lot of risk involved and I’m damn proud to be doing it with Mr. Jack Roush, Brad Keselowski and the Fenway Group at RFK, and with Ford.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Maytag Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Obviously, we had a strong Maytag/Menards Ford Mustang. We were able to get to the front when we needed to at times. I hate we weren’t able to capitalize and lead as many laps as we did in stage two to give ourselves a larger buffer for the final stage, but the guys did a great job of keeping me informed with what I needed to do to keep ourselves out front and get back to the front. Everything we needed to do we checked the boxes tonight.” HOW DID YOU VIEW THE FINAL RESTART? “For us, it was fairly simple on how to control our destiny and obviously dodge the wrecks. That was the huge part, but as far as I understand it’s a best-case scenario for Ford tonight. I’m super proud of everybody and we’re ready to go chase for a championship.” YOU’VE MADE THE POSTSEASON FOUR TIMES IN YOUR FIVE YEARS. YOUR THOUGHTS? “I think, for us, we’ve got to absolutely kill it to think we have a shot at a championship with the way that the points reset, but this team is capable of a lot and I want to see how far we can go.” HOW NERVE RACKING WAS TONIGHT? “Honestly, less than you’d think. I think there’s a lot of variables and I don’t mean to downplay it, but there were certainly a lot of variables going into the night. We weren’t all on top of each other, so I felt like in a lot of ways it was somewhat more simplified of how the race was gonna play out after I was able to watch and observe. I thought our car was good enough to charge back through when needed and obviously we got ourselves in position. The guys did a great job of giving me information all night, whether it was points or fuel and how to adapt. That’s what it takes to be a contender at a minimum, but definitely look for a strong 10 weeks from us.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – NO RESETS NOW IN THE CHASE. WHAT IS THIS GOING TO BE LIKE? “It will be different from what we’ve had the last little bit, but I think everyone was kind of used to that growing up or prior or things like that, so I really don’t think you’re just gonna have to know that you’re not gonna be able to really afford any mistakes. Things are gonna fluctuate up and down, for sure.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Aaron’s Dream Machine Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU WERE LEADING AND THEN IT ALL WENT WRONG. WHAT HAPPENED? “I just got wrecked. I haven’t really seen a replay to break it down, but it’s just unfortunate to come that close and have it not work out.” WAS IT JUST A CASE OF EVERYBODY GOING FOR THE WIN IN OVERTIME? “Yeah, I guess. I don’t know. I haven’t seen a replay. It felt like I didn’t even get a shot to survive with the 45 and just got wiped out.”
