Greatness. That’s what you can describe what Ford is doing at the Talladega Superspeedway. There’s no doubt about it, Ford has been the manufacturer to beat on superspeedway tracks as of late in general. Since 2014, they’ve won 14 of 23 points paying Cup races. Last year, they only won 1 of 4, but it was a dominating win in the playoff race at Talladega where they led 125 of 188 laps. In 2018, they were 2-for-4 but the year prior, they won all four trips. The year prior to that, they were 3-for-4.

This year though, is the second year of their new car, the Mustang. Will this body style race and draft as well as the Fusion did? Talladega last October showed yes, and even the season opener Daytona 500 did too at times, but some drivers last year said that they didn’t have the speed compared to the Chevrolet’s though.

The horsepower is there, but they said that the car didn’t glide through the air with as much speed as in the last five years? Can they be there in the end though?

In the July Daytona race of last year, several top Ford drivers were taken out in a crash together while running up front. That left them struggling to find out where the speed went?

“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 that day. “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 were 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.”

Ford’s have won six straight Fall Talladega races and three of the last four in the spring. Penske, won five of those six Fall events and half of the spring to account for five of the last seven Ford wins at Talladega.

Could they pick up another victory on Sunday afternoon?