JOEY LOGANO CAPS FORD WEEKEND NASCAR SWEEP WITH NWS CUP VICTORY – Ford Racing Photo
Ford Racing Notes and Quotes – NASCAR Cup Series
Window World 450 — North Wilkesboro Speedway
Sunday, July 19, 2026
* Joey Logano won his first race of 2026 today and second at North
Wilkesboro Speedway after winning the All-Star Race in 2024.
* The win is Logano’s 38th of his Cup Series career and 36th with
Ford.
* Those 36 wins put him third on the all-time Ford win list.
* In addition, it’s Logano’s 50th victory with Ford and Team
Penske in all three top series combined (36 Cup, 12 NOAPS and 2 NCTS).
* Tonight’s victory also marks the 400th points victory for the
Roush Yates Engine shop in NASCAR’s top three series combined (208
Cup, 165 NOAPS, 27 NCTS).
* Logano’s win completes a Ford weekend sweep after Chandler Smith
won Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race for the second year
in a row.
* Team Penske has now won 110 times in the Cup series with Ford.
* Today’s win is Ford’s 751st all-time in NASCAR Cup Series
competition.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY
LANE INTERVIEW – HOW DO YOU FEEL AFTER GETTING THIS WIN? “It was
just a solid race car. I knew in practice that the car had speed and the
balance was really loose. When you have that, its like, ‘OK, if we get
the balance right, this thing is really fast, I think.’ So, they did a
good job dialing it in overnight and putting it in position at the end
of the first stage. That’s when we finally got where we needed to be
and was able to just set sail up front. It was just a really solid race
car. I was lucky to get to drive this one today and really just being
able to manage a lot of things inside the car, so I’m proud of Paul
Wolfe. He does a good job. We tested twice over the offseason here when
they were testing all of the other stuff with the rules packages and
stuff, so just a really good tester.” WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK WITH
SO MANY LAPS LED AND THE ALL-STAR WIN? ARE YOU THE WILKESBORO WHISPERER?
“I hadn’t heard that one. I don’t want to be a one track wonder,
but right now it’s a good one to be good at and last year you feel
like you had one taken away there at the end. Even the old pavement I
felt like we had a chance of winning that All-Star Race as well. We just
have always had fast cars here and was able to manage the short track
stuff. That’s definitely in our wheelhouse right now.”
Ford Finishing Results:
1st – Joey Logano
7th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Todd Gilliland
10th – Ryan Preece
11th – Ryan Blaney
14th – Austin Cindric
20th – Chris Buescher
22nd – Zane Smith
25th – Noah Gragson
35th – Chad Finchum
36th – Josh Berry
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“It used to be 500 or so here I’m told by the guys who have been
around here for a long time and I respect them after today because 450
is a long time, 500, that must have been grueling. It was a good day for
us with the Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang. We got a top 10, seventh
here, some stage points. We just executed really well. The car was not
the fastest, but we didn’t beat ourselves. We had good strategy by
Jeremy Bullins and solid stops. We’re missing our jack man, Dustin
Lineback. We’re thinking about him, but the guys stepped up and did a
good job.” DO PERFORMANCES LIKE TONIGHT GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE YOU CAN
MAKE THE CHASE? “We’re gonna have to earn it. We had a really
difficult two month stretch, where we dropped from in the top 10 in
points to 19th, and we need to rebound from that. Days like today give
us hope that we can do that.” THERE ARE MORE SHORT TRACKS COMING UP.
HOW STRONG DO YOU THINK THE FORDS ARE OVERALL AT THIS STYLE OF TRACK?
“The short tracks and superspeedways are the best chances for the
Fords and we need to capitalize on that for sure. That doesn’t mean
we’re gonna throw away the other races, we still have to make the most
of those too.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I
thought we did a really good job of coming from the back and where we
got to. Midway through stage two I thought was really, really good and I
just settled into the fourth to sixth place. I kind of felt like
that’s where I was at and then I just sped getting onto pit road on
the green flag stop. That hurt our night. That’s a bummer. I thought
we could have run in that fourth to sixth range where we were at, but
it’s still a decent day overall. We’re moving on. I didn’t really
know out there where the 20 was at, but we’ll go for it at Indy.”
YOUR OPPONENT IS TODD GILLILAND, A FELLOW FORD DRIVER. WHAT ARE YOUR
EXPECTATIONS? “Ford is gonna get it, so that’s good. The Blue Oval
is gonna win the In-Season Challenge. It’ll be a good race. That group
at FRM does a really good job and Todd is a really talented race car
driver, so it’ll be a tough one. Indy, a lot of strategy goes on there
and a lot of things can happen, so we’re gonna have to be on top of
our game like every week. But it’s nice that a couple of Blue Ovals
have a shot at it.”
TODD GILLILAND, No. 34 Ruedebusch Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“Overall, that was just a very solid night for us. I’m pretty happy
with how we unloaded. My crew chief felt pretty confident and we worked
hard the whole weekend, and I feel like we got it closer to where we
needed to be. It was a completely different short track package for us,
and I’m excited for here and then something similar maybe like
Richmond and places like that. We’ll keep chipping away, but I’m
really proud of my team for digging in. What we’ve had here hasn’t
been good and just going out on an island and, luckily, it was a little
bit better.” YOU ADVANCED TO THE IN-SEASON CHALLENGE FINAL WITH A GOOD
EFFORT TONIGHT. “Yeah, absolutely. We definitely caught a big lucky
break there at the beginning, but that was strategy. We knew there was a
risk with short pitting and everybody did, so I was definitely very
proud of the strategy and kind of the way we executed the whole race.
That was probably about as good as it could have gone. It’s crazy.
We’ve got to beat one more guy for a million dollars.” AND THAT’S
ANOTHER FORD GUY IN RYAN BLANEY. “Yeah, the 12 is pretty good.
That’s for sure. That’s the reason why they’re at this point in
the bracket, so I’m excited about it. That’s the crazy thing is that
anything can happen. We have to do what’s best for the 34 team and
race all the way to the checkered flag because you never really know.
We’ll keep grinding away. It’s pretty wild. I’m pretty excited.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 SimpleTire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a
long night. We had a caution go our way, so that was nice. I’m just
proud of Derrick’s calls and we had a good day.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“It looked like the 20 just got loose and chased it up into us and we
wrecked.” ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE DONE TO NOT BE IN THAT POSITION?
“I don’t know. I can’t put into words the amount of stuff that’s
happened this year. I mean, we drove up to probably just outside the top
10, we had top five lap times, the car was good, and then we pit and the
caution of course comes out and we get trapped two laps down, wave
around, just back there in the crap and just get wrecked. It’s
disappointing. I felt like tonight was the night we certainly could have
gotten a good finish like it looks like our teammates are gonna do, but
that was tough. I’m aggravated at the 20, but he’s in the same
position I am. He was back there and just got loose.” IS THIS THE BEST
CAR YOU’VE HAD THIS YEAR? “Yeah, I would say so. Martinsville, we
were pretty good too, but I feel like to start where we did and move
through the field, we passed a lot of cars. Both pit stops we had early
we got blocked in on pit road and lost a bunch of spots and then had to
keep re-passing a bunch of cars, too. I felt like our car was pretty
good. It definitely had speed and was just a couple tweaks away from
being really, really good. We just needed some track position.” HOW
HARD IS THIS WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO SELL YOURSELF FOR NEXT YEAR AND
YOU’RE NOT GETTING CHANCES TO FINISH RACES? “It’s tough. I’ve
worked my whole life to get in this position and now I feel like people
view me completely differently after this year compared to what I’ve
done up until this point. I’ve never lived through a season like this
when it’s just one thing after another. Things that people don’t see
that don’t make it on TV. I don’t go on social media every week and
post about every little thing that went wrong in our race. We just
can’t catch a break, flat out. Even this week, we were eighth in
practice and had a good car and, of course, qualifying gets rained out.
If we get to qualify, I felt like we would have had a much better
starting spot, a much better pit stall. It’s just one thing after
another and it’s certainly discouraging.”