DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – Once upon a time, superspeedway racing was dominated by the blue ovals. See, the Ford’s in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series action were the ones to beat whenever we showed up to Daytona and Talladega.

See, when the Toyota’s hooked up here in the Daytona 500, the Ford drivers took notice. They figured that if they all team up, then they have strength in numbers. They already had the raw speed, but lineup and work together, then watch out.

Between 2016 and 2018, Ford drivers had won three straight years in the spring race at Talladega. They’ve also won five straight fall races on the 2.66-mile superspeedway too.

Here in Daytona, Ford drivers have won the Daytona 500 twice between 2015 and 2018. In the Coke Zero Sugar 400, they won three times in the last five years.

But, 2019 has been different. Team figured out their plan and made it work against them.

In February, the Hendrick Motorsports drivers decided to team up with Joe Gibbs Racing and have eight combined cars to challenge the Ford’s. It panned out.

JGR and Toyota would finish 1-2-3 for the Daytona 500.

At Talladega in April, HMS would finish 1-2 while Chevy overall came home 1-2-3.

In Sunday’s rain delayed Coke Zero 400, the Ford drivers teamed up early and appeared to have their groove back. At one point in Stage 1, they were running 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. By Lap 50 (end of Stage 1) they finished 1-2-3-4 and had six of the top seven finishers overall.

But, everything went up in smoke not too long after.

Lap 84 saw six Ford’s involved in a crash on the front stretch. Among those six were Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick and Daniel Suarez. Those are some heavy hitters.

Then, on the Lap 118 “Big One” in Turn 1, we saw four more cars collected including Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Logano again.

Despite the incidents, the Ford drivers still don’t think they have enough to compete for wins on superspeedway’s right now.

“We just don’t right now have the speed that I think the Toyota’s and Chevy’s do on the plate tracks,” said Brad Keselowski. “We’ve been on the other side of that too, where we were faster than them and able to dominate these races. It’s just part of the cycle.”

“I’m not sure what we’re missing. I don’t know.”

Also, because they’re all working together, a small mistake can take out several cars within a manufacturer.

“Yeah there’s definitely some truth to that,” Keselowski continued. “But, we have to work together if we’re gonna keep up with those other guys. They can just run like a tenth or two faster than we can. Our only shot, really, is to be a band of brothers and I thought the Ford guys did a pretty good job of trying to do that. It just didn’t work out.”

Keselowski, isn’t the only one who thinks that too.

“It’s a double edged sword,” said David Ragan. “I feel like our Ford Mustangs were all fast and when we can work together, it elevates the whole team and that’s a good thing. But, when someone makes a mistake or someone hits the wall or someone wrecks, you take out three or four cars. So, that sucks.

“This is just a product of Daytona and Talladega. I used to take it personal and get all mad and frustrated but it is what it is. I’ve wrecked in the front. I’ve wrecked in the back. When you’re running in big packs like that, big wrecks happen.”