#12: Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang
Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400
Saturday, August 23, 2025
BLANEY AND HIS NO. 12 FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE WIN A DAYTONA THRILLER
* Ryan Blaney won his second race of 2025 and the 15th Cup race of his
career today.
* This marks Blaney’s second career Cup win at Daytona International
Speedway.
* It’s also his fifth career win on superspeedways as he has three
victories at Talladega.
* Blaney, along with Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry
qualified for the playoffs.
* Today’s win is Ford’s 746th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series
competition
* It also marks Team Penske’s 105th series win with Ford.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW: WHAT ABOUT THE LAST FEW LAPS OF THAT RACE?
“Yeah, we just started rolling. I was with the 41 if he wanted to go
three-wide top I wanted to let him know that under caution, and I was
kind of waiting for him to go and knew we were probably gonna have
people go with us if we went up top, it was just a matter of who would
bite first. I figured if two of us went up there, you’d have followers
and help. We finally went and it kind of checked on the tri-oval and
Cole jumped up and we were able to keep a bunch of momentum going and
have good pushes from Suarez, things like that, and then I just kind of
kept creeping on the top. When the 7 blocked the 41 and the next thing I
know I’m leading the lane and now I’m clear to the middle and I can
play two lanes. I didn’t quite know what lane to block, the middle or
top at the end. I was like, ‘Just try middle. I think we’ve got
enough momentum.’ Enough to hold them off. It was a crazy last few
laps, that’s for sure. I’m gonna be excited to go back and watch it
on TV.”
HOW SPECIAL IS IT TO WIN AGAIN HERE AT DAYTONA? “It’s nice to be
back. This is such a cool Victory Lane, looking up and seeing the World
Center of Racing. It’s something I’ll never forget when we won here
in ‘21. It’s just a cool place to be, so it’s really special. When
you can win at Daytona, Talladega, you never know what’s gonna happen
at these places and you just try to do the best job you can and we did
that tonight and was in a spot to win and was able to hang on.”
YOU’VE GOT FIVE STRAIGHT TOP 10 FINISHES. TALK ABOUT YOUR MOMENTUM
GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “I think this team is really doing a good job
of hitting our stride when we need to. I’ve been proud of our efforts
all year, it’s just been can we smooth some things out and have some
stuff go our way. It seems to be smoothing out and this team is just
performing and finishing where we should. That’s what I’ve been
happy with, so it’s great to win this one and good momentum for next
week.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT
HAPPENED DOWN THE STRETCH? “I don’t know. This race car was really
good. The team did a fantastic job. The Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang
was fast and handled fantastic. We got up there and was side-by-side
there with the 22. We only got there for about two laps, and I thought
that was going to be a really good spot and let us be able to duke it out.
I think he got hit a little bit there, so we lost our track position on
that caution and got behind some cars and got a little bit boxed in.
That’s a shame because we just want more and our car was so good. We
had a shot to win that thing and it’s great to be there, but we just
want to win.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU WERE
IN POSITION AND THEN SOMETHING WENT WRONG WITH THE 43 BEHIND YOU.
“Yeah, we were in the right place. It’s happened many, many times
where we’ve been in the right place here at Daytona and we don’t
have anything to show for it. Our team is so good at it. Our cars are
fast. Our execution was really good today. Coleman (Pressley, spotter)
did great. It’s just our car was a little free and then where the push
came as the track flattens out there it spins the leader right out. It
is what it is.”
DESPITE THAT DO YOU FEEL GOOD GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS?
“There are good tracks lined up. There’s good momentum. Obviously,
Ryan getting a win, that’s good momentum as well for the team. This
team has done a good job the last seven or eight weeks. A lot of weird
things have happened, but we’ve done a good job controlling what we
can, so that’s what you’ve got to do in the playoffs.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Kroger/Little Bites/Capri Sun Ford Mustang Dark
Horse – YOU WERE RIGHT THERE. “Man, I felt like we were gonna win
that race. You want to talk about having the best scenario play out for
how we wanted it to, I was just leaving the 7 there. The 17 was doing a
great job just letting him stay there and there’s nothing you can do.
The problem is you know the 9 and the 5 were worried about their
teammate that would have been bumped out, so it was a tough situation. I
thought we were gonna win that one because we did everything right today
and it just didn’t work out.”
CODY WARE, No. 51 Arby’s Jamocha Shake Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“It was definitely not the result we wanted, but I think we showed the
guys today that we’re gonna keep showing up at these races and keep
trying to do our best to win. We’re gonna get one some day soon here.
It’s gonna come sooner rather than later, so just super glad to get
the Arby’s 51 Jamocha Shake up front. Ford Performance and our Roush
Yates Engines was fast all day. I learned a lot running up front and I
think we’re gonna get one here once we can dial it in and get some
track position and just happy with the speed we had all day.”
WHAT ABOUT THE FINAL STAGE TRYING TO SAVE AND THEN GO. “Track position was
just too important. Even at these races now you’ve got to be up front
to stay up front. I tried to maneuver around a little bit, but
unfortunately on that final restart that third line formed while we were
already kind of married to the bottom, so we couldn’t get our way up
there. Still, I think we had our best race of the year and our result
doesn’t show that.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Zep Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We’re only on
lap 27, 28 and there are guys trying to make it four-wide at the front
of the pack. I was just collateral damage at that point. It’s
definitely a bummer, but I’m still super proud of our team. We started
almost towards the back, 32nd I think, and we were up in the top 10 20
laps in, so it’s not from a lack of effort. I just really appreciate
everybody at Front Row Motorsports. We’re looking on to Darlington.
It’s more in our control and look to have a strong run there.”
WHAT DID YOU SEE? “I saw them wrecking towards the bottom and they shot up
the racetrack into us. I mean, it’s every race this year it seems
like, or most of them. We’ll go on to Darlington and try again.
We’ve just been collateral damage all year long and just the wrong
place at the right time pretty much every race. If I ride around in
last, I mean we started 32nd and drove up into the top 10 20 laps in, so
I don’t know. You just hang out and Monday morning quarterback it and
hang out in the back and save fuel, but as a race car driver and for our
team, I want to try and lead every lap and get up there and be smart
while I do it and I felt like I was doing a decent job at that, but just
getting caught up in the wrecks. They’re always right where we are
this year.”