Ford can probably faintly hear the Soggy Bottom Boys echoing through the NASCAR Cup Series garage area these days.
Much has been made about Toyota’s stellar start to the 2026 Cup season, and despite having a new Camaro body to work with, Chevrolet — or at least, Hendrick Motorsports — has looked solid to start the 2026 campaign.
But aside from the desert sands of Phoenix where Ryan Blaney once again whipped the field on long runs and simply refused to lose, the blue ovals look lost. Like, really lost.
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If you take Blaney, arguably the best current Ford driver in the field at the moment, out of the equation, there is only one other Ford driver top 10 in the Cup standings: RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher in ninth. Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece are 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively.
The only other Ford driver in the top 20 is Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith, who was top 10 at Daytona and Atlanta but hasn’t been back inside the top 10 since. Team Penske’s Austin Cindric is 30th, with the Wood Brothers Racing entry of Josh Berry in 32nd.
I say this in the nicest way possible: Ford is getting curbstomped right now.
Aside from Blaney’s aforementioned run at Phoenix, there have been few sightings of a Ford with race-winning speed. Toyota dominated the day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a race Ford won in 2025 with Berry. Blaney ran up front at Circuit of the Americas before the race for the win came down to a Toyota in Tyler Reddick and a Chevy in Shane van Gisbergen.
Even at Daytona International Speedway and EchoPark Speedway, drafting tracks where Penske usually spends plenty of time out front, Logano, Blaney, Cindric and Berry didn’t have their regular dosage of speed. Smith in seventh was the highest-finishing Ford driver at Atlanta, while Logano’s mangled No. 22 finished third at Daytona to carry the flag for the manufacturer.
A good run at Darlington Raceway this weekend for Ford is paramount. Someone other than Blaney needs to lead laps or consistently run inside the top five. Another weekend at a non-flat oval where a Ford isn’t at all in the picture would be very concerning.
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Meanwhile: remember when Chevrolet first introduced the Camaro body in 2018, and aside from a controversial Austin Dillon victory in the Daytona 500, it didn’t win a race until Chase Elliott scored his first career win at Watkins Glen International in August?
When Chevrolet last introduced a new body within the same generation of car, it took until October when Elliott won at Dover for the manufacturer to win on a non-drafting oval. Chevrolet only won four Cup races in 2018, all with Elliott.
And while Chevy is winless through five races in 2026, it looks as if it won’t go through a similar drought this season. Elliott, Kyle Larson and William Byron are fifth, seventh and eighth in the standings, respectively, and Elliott and Byron just finished second and third at Vegas. Larson was also third at Phoenix Raceway, while Elliott won his Daytona duel race and darn near won the Daytona 500.
Toyota is far and away the best manufacturer to start the season, but Chevrolet will not be left in the dust as it was in 2018. With the circuit heading to Darlington this weekend, Larson, Byron and Elliott will all likely run inside the top 10. You can’t count out Spire Motorsports young gun Carson Hocevar, who continues to make headlines on a near-weekly basis, either.
Chevrolet and Hendrick in particular might not be exactly where they want to be right now in regard to a lack of checkered flags, but they’re in a much better position than they were eight years ago and are certainly faster than Ford at the moment (not that that’s a huge accomplishment right now).
With Darlington and Martinsville still to come before the Easter break, the next two weeks will be even more telling about where each manufacturer and team stands as the Cup season truly begins to take shape.
I think the bigger question is “does Ford care?” For that matter, how much longer will Chevy care?
Ford is now a sponsor for Red Bull’s F1 team. GM has entered F1 with a full Cadillac team, which cost them $450 million just for the right to get on the grid. This doesn’t even account for the expenses of creating/running a team.
“Stock cars” are what made NASCAR great. But now, Ford and Chevy barely make cars in general. So where’s the upside in pumping millions of dollars into a series which uses antiquated technology, when they can spend their money in the most technologically advanced racing on the planet?
As I’ve said before, nascar has been trying to force Ford out for decades. Now teamed up with toyota and Chevrolet they have managed to force Ford out of the OAP series. I predict by 2028 Ford will be out of nascar.
Your nuts Ford will again Dominate at the end of the year like they always do You will see Ford is the best manufacturer by far Going all the way back to Beating Ferrari butt n Bill Elliott Tbird fastest broke all kind of records Toyota Never ever pick a Japanese cars n Chevy gotta cheat to win Ford got screwed when they banned the best engine ever 428 Cammer Ford built to win just watch who wins championship like they did in all 3 divisions Xfinity NASCAR and Truck all in the same year don’t see Toyota or Chevy doing that end of story.Them manufacturers are lucky Carroll Shelby isn’t around