LEBANON, TN. - Ryan Blaney broke through a season-long win drought putting the No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford Mustang Dark Horse into victory lane at Nashville Superspeedway. It was the first win for Blaney in 2025 and moved him up to seventh place in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings. One position behind Blaney in the standings is his Team Penske stablemate Joey Logano. Logano finished fourth at Nashville in the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse. The pair of Team Penske entries were the only two Fords to break into the top 10.
In the process of winning his first race of the season, Blaney led for 139 laps - 60 laps more than his nearest challenger - and captured the Stage 2 win in the No. 12.
Blaney was the last of the four drivers associated with Team Penske to win this season. With the Nashville victory, Blaney now joins Austin Cindric (No. 2), , Joey Logano (No. 22) and Josh Berry (No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing sister program) with an automatic bid in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
The Cup Series returns to action next Sunday, June 8 at Michigan International Raceway for the Firekeepers Casino 400. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on PRIME, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
NCS RACE TOP-10 UNOFFICIAL FINISHERS
1st – Ryan Blaney
2nd – Carson Hocevar
3rd – Denny Hamlin
4th – Joey Logano
5th – William Byron
6th – Bubba Wallace
7th – Erik Jones
8th – Kyle Larson
9th – Tyler Reddick
10th – Christopher Bell
REMAINING FORD FINISHERS
13th – Zane Smith
14th – Chris Buescher
18th –Austin Cindric
19th – Cole Custer
22nd – Todd Gilliland
23rd –Brad Keselowski
28th – Ryan Preece
30th – Josh Berry
33rd– Cody Ware
35th – Chad Finchum
38th – Noah Gragson
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“I never gave up hope, that's for sure. We've had great speed all year, just hasn't been the best year for us as far as good fortune. The 12 boys are awesome; they stick with it no matter how it goes, and it was great to finish one out tonight.”
Q. How much did the game change for you on the 12 team when Hassler made the call for the two-tire stop at the end of Stage 1 and you got all that track position?
“Yeah, I thought it was a good call. We drove up to seventh there in the first stage, and I thought two tires were great. I thought my car was really good, and that really set us up for the rest of the race, so great job by him, as always, all the 12 boys, appreciate what they do pit crew was great. Appreciate Menard's, Cardell, Ford, Ford Motor Company, Roush Yates Engines, Discount Tire, Wabash, Worth, Snap-on, DEX Imaging, Body Armour, Advance Auto Parts, everything what they do. It's nice that it's finally happening, so I'm ready to go celebrate.”
Q. You don't normally do burnouts after a win, but Corey LaJoie loves to grade burnouts. So I'm sure he's very happy you gave him one?
“I didn't think it was very good, but did the crowd like the burnout or not? They liked it so that's all that matters.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“I gave him a whole two lanes off the bottom and he just trekked me. It annihilated us. It was so early in the race and that was a hard hit. It is just sort of the story of our year so far. We’ve been running good, running better, then we get taken out by things not of our doing. We just have to go faster to get away from it all. We have been building good cars. We ran good at Charlotte. I feel like we have good speed at some of these tracks. I am really proud of everyone at Front Row Motorsports. It just sucks to be annihilated like that.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger/OIKOS Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“Incredibly aero sensitive race. We just didn’t get the details right. We had decent speed but we didn’t perform at the level we are capable of. On to Michigan. We should be really good there. I am excited for it. It has been a really good one for us. We had a good tire test there. We will see what the new tire does but the speed was there.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“I thought our car was pretty solid. We had worked our way into the top-ten at the end of the second stage. Unfortunately, had a penalty on pit road and got mired in the back and just couldn’t get back up there. All in all, I was pretty happy with our Ford Mustang and we will get them next week.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“We just took too long to get going. That pretty much was our day. Proud of Team Penske and proud of Ford. The car wasn’t fast in the first 30 laps.”
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse -
“Our guys did a great job tonight and have been working their tails off to get better and better. We ran a good number of laps inside the top 15 and brought home a solid top-20 finish, but this race showed we can go out there and compete.”
CODY WARE, No. 51 Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse -
“Just a really frustrating night. I felt like we had a decent Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse tonight, but the night kind of fell apart after we had an issue with a wheel at the start of the final stage. It’s a tough, tough way to have a swing like that in what would have been a decent day for the team. So we’re just going to reset, re-rack it for Michigan and just keep building on the progress we’re making as a race team.”
