Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Quaker State 400
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Ford Unofficial Finishing Results
2nd – Brad Keselowski
7th – Zane Smith
9th – Chris Buescher
13th – Cody Ware
15th – Ryan Preece
19th – Cole Custer
25th – Noah Gragson
27th – Todd Gilliland
29th – David Starr
32nd – Josh Berry
36th – Joey Logano
38th – Austin Cindric
39th – Corey LaJoie
40th – Ryan Blaney
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse – ANYTHING MORE YOU COULD HAVE DONE THE LAST LAP? “The 9 just had the 48 behind him giving him a huge push and there was nothing I could do to cover that. When had our cars linked up at RFK we could do the same thing, but we lost that and it was just kind of a two-on-one and I fought as hard as I could.” DID YOU THINK AT ONE POINT THIS WAS YOUR RACE TO LOSE? “No, not the way these races are done. The cars get too big of a run and it ain’t over til it’s over. Every time I got the lead, I couldn’t seem to get everything to go our way. If we could have gotten a yellow or anything there it certainly would have been helpful, but that didn’t happen.” WHAT DOES THIS FEEL LIKE CONSIDERING YOUR PLAYOFF SITUATION? “I don’t think about that. I just want to win.” ULTIMATELY, IT WAS THE 48 AND 9 WORKING TOGETHER THAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE AT THE END? “Yeah. They were able to work together really well and kind of double up on me at the end and there was nothing I could do.” DOES IT STING? “Every loss stings.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a really solid night for us. This is the best race car we’ve had here since the reconfiguration, so I appreciate everybody working hard to make that our reality tonight. We were up there running strong and I was there at the end. I just needed to keep that track position and a couple cars were able to maneuver a little bit better there at the end.” SO MANY CHANGES FOR THE LEAD WITH ALL THOSE RUNS. HOW DID YOU SEE THOSE CLOSING LAPS PLAY OUT? “We were fast. We were able to work together pretty well. We got far enough in a run where handling was definitely a balance offset for us and I wasn’t able to stay connected as well as I needed to the 6 to keep us out front.” WERE DID YOU WANT TO BE IN THE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY PASSES FROM SECOND TO FIRST? “You want to be up front. You want to be leading this thing, but you were a little bit of a sitting duck tonight with some of the runs that came on and with handling the way it was – there were a handful of cars that were able to take tires at the end with no penalty. They just really didn’t have anything to lose and it ended up showing up pretty big for them at the end.”
ZANE SMITH, No. 38 Aaron’s Lucky Dog Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU WERE RIGHT THERE GOING BACK AND FORTH AT THE FRONT. “It was fun to lead some of those final closing laps. I don’t know where it went wrong. I just feel like we went back and forth. Sometimes just one car was clearing me and I’d build my run back up and then go make another charge at it, and then it just kind of seemed like two guys got by me and you’re just not able to have as much throttle time. My runs weren’t quite the same, but, all in all, it was just a really good and a really fast Aaron’s FRM Ford Mustang. It was really cool to have the Lucky Dog scheme back and run up front with it. I’m just proud of the effort, but I wish it panned out a little bit different there.” SURELY YOU LEARNED A LOT FOR THE NEXT TIME WITH BEING AT THE FRONT NEAR THE END. “Yeah, for sure I learned a lot. There are some things we need to work on ultimately – controlling distances. That was my first time really defending the lead with a digital camera. It’s just a lot different with how you see runs coming and so to be bummed out with a top 10 is a good thing. I just feel like that was an opportunity to win and advance, but it’s still a good night for us.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU JUST SAW THE REPLAY. WHAT DID YOU THINK? “Basically, what I saw there, I didn’t realize there were that many cars in it, but it wrecked the whole field. I still don’t know exactly how it started. It wasn’t the best of replays, but it was total chaos. Cars were sideways and on the brakes. I got hit from every corner possible. I was right in the middle of the whole thing. It’s a real bummer. What do you do? It’s just part of the game sometimes. It’s just the crappy part of our racing sometimes. You get caught up in something you couldn’t do anything about.” WHAT DID YOU SEE? “A lot of smoke and sideways cars, including myself somewhere in that mix. I don’t know exactly what happened. They tried to show me a replay, but I still couldn’t see good enough to see exactly what happened, just when a car gets turned sideways in front of everyone. It’s tight right now like it was getting up to speed. There wasn’t much separation in the field, so once they start checking up everybody just piled in. Just the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s a real bummer. The Autotrader Mustang wasn’t too bad. It had speed. We were gonna have to work on handling, no doubt, but it hurts to see so many of our cars – all four of our cars that were lights out – none of them are even running anymore. It’s a crime.” YOU SAID YESTERDAY YOU DIDN’T FEEL SAFE STARTING UP FRONT WITH HOW THIS RACING CAN GO. THAT PLAYED OUT. “Yeah, you just don’t know exactly what’s gonna happen. If it went green to the end of the stage, you’re looking pretty good. You’ve got track position, but when that caution came out for the rain, it gave everyone the opportunity to flip it. You know at that point you’re gonna pay the piper. You’re gonna have to go to the back, but we felt like it was worth it to try to win the stage because you never know what’s gonna happen. We felt like let’s try to win the stage and, unfortunately, we didn’t pull that off either. We got probably eight points, I think, there, and then that just put us right in the middle of the soup and didn’t even get an opportunity to try to work our way up.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “A lot of cars wrecking in the middle of the straightaway, which here you kind of more expect it in the middle of the corners, but maybe just a push gone wrong. It’s hard to say. I had a small chance to get through a gap there, but obviously it didn’t work out. It’s a shame. Obviously, we had a super fast Quaker State/Menards Ford Mustang. We wanted to keep the thing out front. I was looking forward to it because we got back in traffic with staying out to win the stage, but I was looking forward to see what our car was gonna do in dirty air and see what final adjustments we needed to make and have that opportunity to learn there. It’s just a shame and a shame for everybody at Team Penske bringing such fast cars and all of them wreck out.” DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED ON REPLAY? “I got to see a front-on shot and it maybe looked like a push going down the back straightaway, kind of midfield, top 10ish, but it’s hard to say. At the end of the day, it doesn’t change a whole lot for me. I’m a big believer in the law of averages and we’ve reset after Talladega and here we are.” ANY CONSOLATION WINNING THE FIRST STAGE? “I guess I can be the happiest of those that aren’t in contention anymore, but, no, not really. I want to go out and win the race. I thought we had a great opportunity to honestly lose track position and feel what our car was gonna be like in heavy traffic. I thought we were decent compared to most of them we were around and it’s taking that chance.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “A lot of cars. I have no idea really what happened. It looked like they were just pushing each other hard for 8th, 10th, 12th like that and got squirrely. It’s just disappointing getting taken out and having that happen with this many laps left.” HOW MANY BRACKETS DO YOU THINK WERE BUSTED IN THE IN-SEASON CHALLENGE? “I’m sure a lot. I mean, coming here you knew that was probably gonna happen. Everybody thought they had it figured out, but they weren’t planning on that.” ALL THREE PENSKE CARS ARE OUT AND SO ARE YOU. HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT? “It’s tough, but we had the four fastest cars yesterday. We were doing our best to fend off all the battles and work with each other at the beginning. Everyone on our 21 team and everybody at Team Penske have a lot to be proud of for how yesterday and the start of the race went. Unfortunately, we just got swept up in somebody else’s mess.”
COREY LAJOIE, No. 01 Schluter Systems Ford – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “Smoke and then a lot of cracked carbon fiber from my hood being blasted up on my windshield. Watching the replay, I don’t know what in the hell they were doing pushing like that in the straightaway. It’s not really anybody’s fault, but it’s everybody’s fault because you’ve got three pedals in there and I just don’t know where everybody is trying to go. These bumpers are rounded, so you push somebody off-square and you’re gonna wreck them. It’s just unfortunate. I don’t know whose fault it was. It was everybody’s fault because we just caused a big wreck.” HOW WAS YOUR CAR BEFORE THAT? “It was fine. I think that if you somehow flipped and got track position, we could have ran in the top eight. I think it would have been a fight to try to get into that top 12 range, which I think we were capable of doing, but we weren’t able to get that far.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED? “I got caught up in a wreck. I don’t know. That’s per usual this year. We get caught up in someone else’s mess.” WHAT DID YOU SEE? “I saw a couple guys spinning and slowing. I got to the apron and there was really nowhere else for me to go but the apron. I tried to get there and get clear of it, but they kind of came down and got me in the right-rear and I ended up in the fence. There was no missing that one.” DID YOU THINK YOU HAD IT CLEARED? “I thought I had it cleared. I really did. I thought I got low enough on the apron to get it clear and try to get through it in time and, honestly, I didn’t even see the 3 when he clipped me. I thought I got past it and then I got clipped. I couldn’t really get any lower by the speed I was doing, trying to, A, get by it with enough speed and, B, try to get as low as I could. I really thought I got by it and just got barely clipped.” HOW DID YOU DROP BACK? HAD YOU JUST PITTED? “Yeah, we pitted and tried to flip the stage. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”
