With multiple teams on the grid and drivers across the board all representing one manufacturer, it’s important to have some bonding between drivers.
Ford conducted one such driver bonding trip, and while it seems funny now, they could have actually lost a driver because the drivers were having a bit too much fun.
Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland was asked what his favorite story was of Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and recalled one such trip after Blaney had already become a Cup champion. The FRM driver’s reply was clipped on Instagram.
Gilliland said, “We’re actually all in a golf cart. So there’s probably six of us on a golf cart. All drivers. It’s pitch black. We can’t see anything. We hit a ditch, and none of us could see it. And Blaney flew off the back, and we’re like ‘Oh no, we just killed Ryan Blaney.’ I don’t know if the Ford guys were very happy with us after that.”
Luckily for Gilliland and Co., nothing happened to the Team Penske Cup series winner. Still, the FRM driver did reveal their logic behind getting six drivers into one golf car, a hazardous circumstance from the outset.
Gilliland said, “We’re like, we won’t get in trouble because Ryan’s with us, right? He was just the champion at that point, but then we thought we hurt him, so that’s probably and all time Ryan Blaney story for me.”
Hard to argue with that logic, but we are happy Ryan Blaney is still around getting race wins, and we are sure Gilliland only laughs about this story now because nothing happened to Blaney. One can only imagine the outrage if something had gone wrong.
Ford vs Ford for the In-Season Challenge finale
While Gilliland recalled the Blaney story with a cackle, when the two Ford drivers race on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there will be no friendship between them.
As the finalists of the In-Season Challenge, both drivers don’t just have their eyes on a strong race result, but they will have their eyes on each other, looking to outdo the other with a million-dollar prize at stake.
Todd Gilliland entered as the 25th seed and beat Spire drivers Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar before facing off and trumping HMS’ Alex Bowman in the quarterfinals and Chase Elliott in the finals. Gilliland has been the underdog right through and will hold that status in the finals.
3rd-seeded Blaney’s path to the finals saw him beat Josh Berry, then Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen before defeating William Byron from Hendrick Motorsports and JGR’s Christopher Bell in the semi-finals.
As the Fords lock horns for the better finishing spot, for Blaney it will be another win, while for Gilliland and Front Row it could be a major highlight in the 2026 season.