Ford drivers banking on a Talladega breakthrough
Winless through the first nine races, Ford drivers enter Talladega Superspeedway knowing Sunday is one of their best chances to breakthrough. And yet, none of them will go as far as to admit it’s a must-win weekend.
“Isn’t every race a must-win?” Logano said Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. “I feel like it is, but maybe that’s just my attitude though.”
Logano is highly competitive, so his answer wasn’t a surprise. However, the question about the importance of Sunday’s GEICO 500 wasn’t centered on Logano and the No. 22 team looking to win, but all Ford drivers. The manufacturer is winless through nine races but enters Talladega Superspeedway as race favorites, given the speed and drafting strength the Ford drivers have at the superspeedways.
“Unfortunately, this is probably our best chance at the moment of races coming up,” Logano admitted. “I look at short tracks and superspeedways, those are our strengths right now as a team. Talladega fits into that area, so we need to maximize it. Not saying we can’t win at any other racetrack, but when I look at the raw speed and how we qualify and run, it’s going to be speedways and short tracks.”
Ford is the only manufacturer without a victory. Ryan Blaney, the reigning series champion, has consistently been the best Ford driver and is the only one sitting inside the top 10 in the championship standings. Blaney has four top-10 finishes in nine races.
“I don’t really think it’s a must-win,” Blaney said. “I haven’t really sat around this week thinking of it that way. Yeah, it’s a good opportunity for us to win because we’ve been strong at these speedways, and we usually all work really well together on these things to try and get a blue oval in victory lane, but I don’t think it’s a must-win.
“It would be nice, obviously, and it would give a good shot of life for sure since a Ford hasn’t won this year, but I just think you’ve got to stick to your normal plan. ‘Hey, we’re pretty good at these things. Let’s just try to do our job again and see if we can get one in victory lane.’ But it’s not a must-win, I don’t think.”
Blaney won the most recent race at Talladega Superspeedway in the fall. In the last three races in Alabama, Blaney has finished no worse than second.
Kevin Harvick, a former Ford driver turned analyst with Fox Sports, said on his podcast earlier this week that Talladega is “really important” for Ford. He further said it would be an “absolute failure” if a Ford driver didn’t win.
“They need to win the race this week,” Harvick said. “A Ford has to win the race this weekend to stop the bleeding from everything that they have going on. … This is where we think they should win. This might be the only place they can win because of the position that they’re in with all the other racetracks.”
Ford debuted a new body design this season, the Mustang Dark Horse. It has been an adjustment for teams to translate what was shown in the data during the offseason to what works at the racetrack.
Chase Briscoe is the second-highest Ford driver in the championship standings at 12th. Briscoe has four top-10 finishes but nine laps led.
“I feel like we’ve been good enough,” Briscoe said. “Like Texas last week, I felt we were good enough to win, and I shot myself in the foot on that (late) restart. So, I don’t know. I definitely think this is the best opportunity for a lot of the Fords to win because it seems like there’s only been two or three Fords on the mile-and-a-half’s and even the short tracks that have been in the mix. So, from a numbers standpoint, this is probably our best opportunity.
“But it’s hard to say coming here this is a must-win and you’re going to pull it off. There are too many variables. I don’t feel like it for our team, but it would be nice to see a Ford get to victory lane, for sure. It’s crazy to think we’re this long into the season and haven’t had a win yet in any of the three seasons. So hopefully, this week will be the difference.”
Blaney, Briscoe, Chris Buescher and Logano are the only Ford drivers inside the top 15 in the championship standings. Logano has led the most laps for Ford — 177 — with the bulk of those led at Daytona, Atlanta and Martinsville. Todd Gilliland, who has led 91 laps, is second to Logano. Blaney is third with 74 laps led.
Combined, Ford drivers have led 507 laps. One stage win each by Blaney, Austin Cindric, and Michael McDowell are all that Ford drivers have earned.
“We know we’re going to be fast down here,” Buescher said. “We were fast in Daytona. When it comes to this race, we’re going to try and work together and try to execute it and try to find our way up to the front, but certainly not a do-or-die situation for this weekend.”
Speaking specifically to his RFK Racing team, Buescher believes they are better now than they were a year ago. It’s three positions that Buescher is looking at that the team needs to take forward.
The co-owner of Buescher’s car, Brad Keselowski, understands the talk about Ford being winless and that it’s a big deal. Outside of the Daytona and Atlanta races, Keselowski isn’t sure there has been a track where Ford had the fastest driver.
“And that’s really a key indicator,” Keselowski said. “We need to have more races where we’re the fastest car.”
Keselowski, like many of his peers, looks at Talladega Superspeedway as an opportunity race.
“It’s definitely a better opportunity for us,” he said. “We have more speed as a manufacturer at these types of tracks; we need to capitalize on that. I think it’s a great opportunity not just for Ford to win but our team to win at RFK and we need to come out of here with great finishes. Daytona and Atlanta, I thought both of those tracks, RFK had great speed, and Ford had great speed, and just the circumstances of the races, we obviously didn’t leave with the win but didn’t leave with a lot of points scored.
“It kind of dug a hole in our standings, which is kind of a shame because the opposite of that is the last few weeks, we earned finishes we probably didn’t deserve. So that’s the ebbs and flows of how a season goes. But when you have cars that are capable of winning, in general, you need to make that count.”
McDowell (left) and Logano both see Talladega as one of the strongest opportunities to crack the win column for Ford. Matt Thacker/Motorsport Images
Ford had six drivers qualify in the top 11 at Talladega Superspeedway. McDowell and Cindric locked down the front row, and it’s the third consecutive superspeedway-style race that McDowell has started on the front row.
“That’s so hard to answer because I feel like every race is a must-win, but, at the same time, I’m not panicked,” McDowell said. “If it doesn’t happen tomorrow, I don’t feel like, ‘Oh, we missed an opportunity, and there’s not another one right around the corner.’
“Does that answer it? Yes, tomorrow is a must-win, but if it doesn’t happen, I’m not panicked. I think we have speed still.”
