Ford Performance NASCAR: Cindric Going for Daytona Sweep; Blaney Looking for Repeat Victory

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FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: DAYTONA 2 ADVANCE

The final regular season race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season is this weekend at Daytona International Speedway with one playoff berth still to be determined.  Ford’s Ryan Blaney currently has the spot based on his position in the point standings and will be looking to repeat his August win from a year ago while Austin Cindric goes for a season sweep after capturing the Daytona 500 in February.  The weekend kicks off with the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Friday.

 

This Week’s Schedule:

Friday, August 26 – NASCAR XFINITY Series, 7:30 p.m. (USA)

Saturday, August 27 – NASCAR Cup Series, 7 p.m. (NBC)

 

FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT DAYTONA

  • Ford has 40 all-time series wins on the oval at Daytona.
  • Ford has won the last 3 races on the Daytona oval.
  • Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell and Ryan Blaney have oval wins at Daytona.

 

FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT DAYTONA

  • Ford has 6 series wins on the oval at Daytona.
  • Ford’s last win was by Austin Cindric in the 2021 season opener.
  • Six different drivers have series wins for Ford.

 

FORD DAYTONA CUP WIN STREAK AT THREE

Ford has won the last three NASCAR Cup Series races held on the Daytona oval, including Austin Cindric’s win in the 500 to start the 2022 season.  Michael McDowell kicked off the streak with his first career victory in the 2021 Daytona 500 and Ryan Blaney gave Ford a season sweep when he won the regular season finale six months later.  Overall, Ford has won 40 races on the 2.5-mile superspeedway with half of those coming in the summer.

 

CINDRIC LOOKING TO JOIN SELECT GROUP

Austin Cindric captured the Daytona 500 for his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory in February and this weekend he’ll look to become only the sixth driver in history to win both events at DIS in the same season.  The five men currently in that group are: Fireball Roberts (1962), Cale Yarborough (1968), Lee Roy Yarbrough (1969), Bobby Allison (1982) and Jimmie Johnson (2013).

 

FOUR FORD DRIVERS IN CUP SERIES PLAYOFFS

With only one race remaining in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, one spot remains up for grabs in the 16-driver playoff field.  Four Ford drivers can rest easy going into Saturday night’s race at Daytona International Speedway knowing that their spot in the postseason is secure.  Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe will all be competing for the championship.  Harvick will be making his 16th appearance in the playoffs, tied for the most in series history with Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin, while Logano has qualified for the ninth time in his career.  Cindric and Briscoe will be making their first appearance.

 

BLANEY ON THE BUBBLE

Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney remains on the bubble and is currently the highest driver in the point standings that has not won a race in 2022.  Blaney, who is third overall, holds a 25-point lead over Martin Truex Jr. and would get the final playoff berth if he wins or maintains that lead and a repeat race winner takes the checkered flag on Saturday night.  Blaney is the defending champion of this weekend’s race and has registered three of his seven career victories on the superspeedways of Daytona (1) and Talladega (2).  He has six top-10 finishes in 14 career Cup starts at DIS, including four of the last five.

 

HERBST AND SIEG MAINTAIN PLAYOFF POSITIONING

Riley Herbst’s seventh-place finish at Watkins Glen enabled him to maintain his eighth-place position in the NASCAR Xfinity Series point standings.  Herbst now has 15 top-10 efforts this season, two more than all of last year, and is a comfortable 129 points above the cutoff for the 12-driver playoff field.  Ryan Sieg finds himself in a much different situation as he currently sits on the bubble and holds the final postseason berth based on his 12th-place position in the point standings.  Sieg has a 39-point lead over Sheldon Creed with only four races remaining in the regular season, but a first-time winner by someone below him in the standings would put him on the outside looking in.  There’s still a chance for Sieg to move off the bubble as he sits only 11 points behind 11th-place Landon Cassill.

Ford Performance PR

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