After opening the 2026 season at Daytona International Speedway, Ford Racing teams in all three of NASCAR\u2019s top series will head to EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway) for the first of two visits this year. Chandler Smith will be looking to start the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season with back-to-back wins after his Daytona victory while Nick Sanchez goes for consecutive track wins in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series. The weekend culminates with the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
QUALIFYING DOMINANCE<\/p>\n
When it comes to qualifying in recent years, no manufacturer has been more dominant than Ford, which has captured the NASCAR Cup Series pole six straight times. The Blue Oval hasn\u2019t only won the pole, but it has swept the front row in each of those qualifying sessions. Team Penske has led the way during this two-year stretch as all three drivers \u2013 Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric \u2013 have qualified in the top 10 for each race. The organization has also had at least one driver start on the front row in each of the last six races. Here\u2019s a list of Ford\u2019s qualifying success since 2023.<\/p>\n
FORD LOOKING TO EXTEND ATLANTA POLE STREAK TO SEVEN<\/p>\n
Joey Logano ran Ford Racing\u2019s streak of Cup poles at EchoPark Speedway to six after putting his No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse on the pole in June.
\nThe list of pole winners during that span includes: Joey Logano and Michael McDowell (twice each), Aric Almirola and Ryan Blaney (once each).
\nFord has swept the front row in six straight AMS qualifying sessions \u2013 Logano\/Berry (2025-2), Blaney\/Cindric (2025-1), McDowell\/Blaney (2024-2), McDowell\/Logano (2024-1), Almirola\/Blaney (2023-2), Logano\/Cindric (2023-1).
\nTeam Penske has had at least one driver start on the front row in each of the last six races (Logano, 2025-2; Blaney and Cindric, 2025-1; Blaney, 2024-2; Logano, 2024-1; Blaney, 2023-2; Logano and Cindric, 2023-1)
\nFord swept the top 8 spots in the 2023 spring race.
\nFord swept the top 6 spots in the 2023 summer race.
\nFord swept the top 5 spots in the 2024 summer race.
\nFord swept the top 5 spots and 9 of the top 10 in the 2025 spring race.
\nFord swept the top 8 spots in the 2025 summer race.<\/p>\n
KESELOWSKI GETS FIRST CUP WIN FOR MUSTANG<\/p>\n
In 2019, Brad Keselowski gave Mustang its first NASCAR Cup Series victory as he held off Martin Truex Jr. at the finish line to win the Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Keselowski, who was battling an illness all weekend and had Austin Cindric standing by in case he needed relief, led the final 33 laps to post his 28th career victory. In all, Ford Racing led 177 of the 325 laps and won for the third straight year at the 1.5-mile track.<\/p>\n
SANCHEZ RETURNING TO SITE OF FIRST WIN<\/p>\n
Nick Sanchez will be looking to make it back-to-back wins in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series at EchoPark Speedway after he took the checkered flag there in June. The win was his first in the series and came after he qualified on the pole. Sanchez, who is in his first year with AM Racing, led three times for 18 laps and passed Jesse Love with six circuits remaining to claim the victory.<\/p>\n
SMITH TURNS HEARTBREAK INTO TRIUMPH<\/p>\n
Ford F-150 driver Chandler Smith seemingly did everything right in his attempt to make last week\u2019s Daytona 500, but circumstances on the final lap of his Duel qualifying race kept him from making the field. One night later, that disappointment turned into joy as he scored a dramatic season-opening victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Smith entered turn three of the final lap in fifth place, but thanks to a push from fellow Ford driver Ty Majeski, Smith rode the inside lane to victory as the four trucks in front of him battled each other. The win marked the third time in the last five years that Ford Racing and Front Row Motorsports have captured the first race of the year at Daytona International Speedway. A win this weekend in Atlanta would make Smith the first driver since Ben Rhodes in 2021 to capture back-to-back races to start the season.<\/p>\n
Ford Racing PR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After opening the 2026 season at Daytona International Speedway, Ford Racing teams in all three of NASCAR\u2019s top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[16600,49,48,718,925,77,720,12716,634,582,721,722,82],"class_list":["post-481339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-brad-keselowski","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-craftsman-truck-series","tag-daytona","tag-international","tag-motor","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-racing","tag-series","tag-speedway","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}