The Fords have been really strong across all three top national series’ in NASCAR. They’ve won 11 of the 20 points paying races in the Cup Series. They’ve won eight of the 17 Xfinity Series races and three of the 10 in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series.

That’s a 47-percent win rate across those national divisions (22 of 47) and more certainly to come. What’s even more impressive is, while under these trying times, Ford has actually picked up pace during the pandemic.

In the Cup Series, we’ve run 16 races since the May 17 return at the Darlington Raceway. Ford, has won over half of them (9). In the Xfinity Series, seven of their eight wins this year have come in the pandemic. That is is more than a 50-percent win rate in that series under the pandemic too. In fact, Ford drivers have won five of the last six NXS races overall.

In Trucks, they won the most recent race with Matt Crafton and won the season opener at Daytona too.

“It’s been a fantastic season so far with everything that we’ve seen, especially with COVID and everything that’s going on in the world – to have NASCAR back racing and for them doing it the right way with keeping everybody safe – we’re really proud of them and their leadership and what they’re doing for the sport,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports.

“We’ve got a lot of great teams and a lot of strength for sure with Roush Fenway, Penske, Wood Brothers, Stewart-Haas, Front Row and Go FAS, so it’s really good to see the depth that we have when you look at the finishing standings at New Hampshire and most of the races this year.  We’ve had a lot of fast cars.  Penske, in particular, they made the changes with their crew chiefs in the middle of the offseason and with really good logic on why they were doing that.

“I think we’re certainly seeing that play out on track now with those three Penske cars getting wins, being strong almost every single week and the drivers have connected with their crew chiefs and team support really well and adapted to that.  So, I’m looking forward to that continued performance.”

Rushbrook, says it was very important for them to get Brad Keselowski signed to an extension to remain with Team Penske and says that he’s a vital part of what they’re doing there.

“Ford Motor Company loves Brad Keselowski and he is an important part of this program,” Rushbrook said. “He is part of this family and he’s a proven champion and a multi-time race winner with his three wins this season and he just continues to demonstrate that he’s at the top of his game.

“He’s won at some very different tracks in very different ways, both with strategy and outright speed and dominance and performance, so we love having him part of this family and love seeing that contract signed to extend that into the future.

“I sent this to Brad, not only did he perform so well on the track on Sunday in Loudon, but he performed off the track.  His post-race interview, he’s a great spokesperson inside of this sport and really proud to have him representing our company.”

Now, with Silly Season ramping up, Ford holds the keys to this thing. Yes, Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota have a situation on their hands with what to do with Christopher Bell and Erik Jones and yes Hendrick Motorsports has an open seat in the 48 car, but Ford has three seats available at Stewart-Haas Racing and still has to find out what to do with Xfinity Series drivers Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric.

Is Kyle Larson part of those plans? Larson, started off his career as a Toyota development driver in USAC, then moved to Chevrolet with Chip Ganassi Racing in NASCAR. After getting fired over a racial slur used in an online race on Easter night, Larson is technically a free agent. He’s tearing up the scene on the dirt track level and has been rumored to be in play for a seat at SHR. While neither SHR not Larson admit that they’ve talked, Ford says that all options are on the table for 2021.

We’re in the midst of silly season and what I can say is we’re looking at all of our options,” Rushbrook said when asked about Kyle Larson and says that it’s not his call. “A lot of our seats have long-term contracts and are solid.

“We certainly have some seats in play, so looking to see what the best options are.  We’re here to win races in the right way.  We want to be competitive on track.  We want to have our innovation and tech transfer and we want the marketing out of it, so looking to see what we can do with any open seats for next year to fill them with the best driver.”

Briscoe, is one of those drivers and with limited seats available in the Ford camp, where do they house him? SHR is an obvious option as they’d like to keep him, but with Kevin Harvick under contract still for next  year, Cole Custer likely being brought back and Aric Almirola in the midst of a career year, I don’t see why SHR doesn’t have all three back in 2021. What does that do to Clint Bowyer? What does that do to Briscoe?

Briscoe, doesn’t need a third year in NXS competition. But, with Penske now being full and SHR potentially being full depending on what they do with Bowyer and/or Larson and the other three free agents that they have, Briscoe has no where competitive to go.

“Yeah, we’re definitely in the middle of that right now,” he said on what to do with Briscoe for next year. “Chase has been outstanding from the day that we signed him through to today and we expect it to continue.  He’s performed at all levels and he’s grown and developed both as a driver inside the truck, inside the car in the different series and outside of the car as well.

“So he’s done everything we’ve asked and more and done it really, really well and look forward to his future and getting him into the right Cup car and the right situation.  We even had him this last weekend back in an IMSA car, a Mustang GT4 at Road America.  Hopefully, that gave him a little bit of seat time to help him in the XFINITY race going back there this weekend, so we’re really high on Chase and support his continued advancement.”

Rushbrook, said that while they don’t talk details about the contract, Briscoe does have a contract with Ford Motor Company, Ford Performance, and then separately signs a contract with the teams when it comes time to go racing.  So his contract with Ford is still in place and that they are working with him and the team to find the right place for him.”

That’s one half of the plan, what about the other with Austin Cindric. He’s in a similar situation as Briscoe with Penske full and SHR not having much room potentially. Cindric, would make sense to stay with Penske since his dad is Tim Cindric, but it doesn’t do much good to put him in the Xfinity Series for a third year nor with a struggling team. Plus, Rushbrook says he likes to keep them in tandem anyways.

“It’s great to see Austin and Chase racing against each other,” Rushbrook said. “We’ve brought them up together.  They raced the IMSA GT4 cars together, trucks, and now XFINITY.  In many ways they’re like teammates or brothers in how they’ve developed their relationship not just on the track but off the track as well.  They’ve both been performing really well.  We think the world of Austin Cindric, so it’s great to see them use the different series in NASCAR for that advancement.”

Still, what do they do with the Xfinity program with Ford. This year, they only have two full time cars and both drivers have proven good enough to graduate up to the Cup level.

“We love the XFINITY Series and definitely enjoying this year,” Rushbrook said of their participation in the series. “We’ve only got two cars, but they’re two really strong cars, strong teams, strong drivers. Specifically, our future plans for XFINITY, a lot of it certainly depends on what happens with Chase and Austin as drivers and where they end up next year, and then looking as we have our pipeline of development drivers, who do we continue bringing through and bringing up.

“Hailie Deegan was our most recent add, but she’s doing a great job in ARCA this year and we’re starting to talk about what is the right place for her next year – to step up to trucks or what makes the most sense.  So, TBD I guess for our XFINITY program next year.”

The Truck field is limited too. ThorSport, DGR Crosley and Front Row Motorsports is it. That’s a combined six full time Trucks.

Still, it’s going to be a wild silly season across all three levels for Ford and trying to put pieces in places to succeed.

Rushbrook also said that he’s open to Michigan being just a doubleheader weekend in the future and says that they don’t necessarily need two race weekends at the track despite being in Ford and Chevy’s backyard. Also, he’s definitely in favor of midweek races and he like all of us would like to have seen bigger numbers on the midweek races run this year, he says they are still valuable and worth more shots in the future.