Ryan Blaney wins the pole award for the Cook-Out 400 at Richmond Raceway – Motorsport America Photo
Ford Racing goes into the start of this season’s Chase with momentum
on its side. Winners in five of the last seven races and three in a row,
the Blue Oval heads to Darlington Raceway with five drivers competing
for the championship after Ryan Preece’s dramatic overtime win in
Daytona. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Chris Buescher
join him in the 16-driver field.
FORD DRIVERS IN THE CHASE
Ford has won three of the last four NASCAR Cup Series championships and
this year five drivers will have the opportunity to extend that streak.
Ryan Blaney, who won the title in 2023, is the second seed after posting
three wins in the regular season while three-time champ Joey Logano is
ninth after a late season run saw him post victories at North Wilkesboro
and Richmond. Austin Cindric rounds out the Team Penske trio while RFK
Racing drivers Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece complete the lineup.
POS – NAME
2nd – Ryan Blaney (-25)
9th – Joey Logano (-65)
10th – Chris Buescher (-70)
15th – Austin Cindric (-95)
16th – Ryan Preece (-100)
PLAYOFF APPEARANCES SINCE 2014
NASCAR began the 16-driver playoff format in 2014 and while that number
hasn’t changed, the format for this season has as the 10-race Chase
returns. This will mark Joey Logano’s 12th appearance as a member of
the field while Penske teammate Ryan Blaney is in it for the 10th time
in his career. Austin Cindric has now qualified four times in his five
seasons at the Cup level, and for Chris Buescher it marks his third
career postseason berth and second as a member of RFK Racing. Ryan
Preece, who is in his seventh fulltime season and third with RFK, is
making his first Chase appearance.
DRIVER – PLAYOFF APPEARANCES IN 16-DRIVER FORMAT
Joey Logano – 12
Ryan Blaney – 10
Austin Cindric – 4
Chris Buescher – 3
Ryan Preece – 1
FORD’S ALL-TIME PLAYOFF RECORD
Ford has 59 all-time NASCAR Cup Series playoff victories since the
postseason era started in 2004. Kurt Busch won the inaugural race at New
Hampshire Motor Speedway that year and rode that momentum to the series
championship. Since then, a total of 13 drivers have captured at least
one playoff event with Joey Logano leading the way with 15. Ryan Blaney
has seven postseason wins, including two last season, while Chris
Buescher has two. Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece are still looking for
their first.
BERRY RUNS TOP 10 STREAK TO FIVE
Josh Berry was able to avoid all of the chaos on the final lap to finish
ninth in Daytona and run his streak of consecutive top five finishes to
five. That result came on the heels of a season-best third place run at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Wood Brothers Racing driver led 73
laps in Loudon, a career-high for one race, after qualifying second.
Berry’s streak started in Indianapolis, where he finished seventh, and
continued at Iowa (fourth) and Richmond (eighth).
KESELOWSKI SWEEPS 2018 SOUTHERN 500 WEEKEND
Brad Keselowski rode a fast pit stop by his crew to register a win in
the 2018 Southern 500. Keselowski found himself in a three-way battle
with Kyle Larson and teammate Joey Logano in the latter stages. When the
caution came out for a spin by Jeffrey Earnhardt with 23 laps to go,
Keselowski and his crew were able to win the race off pit road and
assume the lead for what proved to be the final restart of the race.
Keselowski was able to get out front on the restart with 19 laps to go
and eventually win by 1.224 seconds. Logano finished second to make it a
1-2 Ford/Team Penske finish and cap a weekend that also saw him take the
NASCAR Xfinity Series race a day earlier.
WOOD BROTHERS LEAD THE WAY
It comes as no surprise that the Wood Brothers are Ford’s all-time
winningest team at Darlington Raceway, posting eight career victories.
All but one of those triumphs came in a Mercury, which the team ran in
the 1960’s and 70’s. David Pearson, who holds the record with 10
career Darlington Cup victories, led the way with six while Cale
Yarborough captured the team’s first in 1968. The last Darlington win
for Wood Brothers Racing came in 1981 when Neil Bonnett took the
Southern 500 in 1981 behind the wheel of a Ford.