Did You Notice? … Ford has stumbled a bit to start the 2024 NASCAR season?
When we last left off in November, the Blue Ovals had produced a stunning sweep of tripleheader championship weekend, capturing titles in the sport’s Craftsman Truck, Xfinity and Cup series with Ben Rhodes, Cole Custer and Ryan Blaney, respectively. Their performance salvaged a season in which the manufacturer won just eight times at the Cup level, far fewer than rivals Chevy or Toyota.
“We did struggle for sure,” admitted Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Performance Motorsport, after winning the championship. “Especially in Cup early on certain style tracks. All of our racing teams working together, nobody gave up, they kept digging, certainly came on strong, especially with Team Penske and the 12 car through the playoffs. …
“We’ve had seasons where we won a lot of races and not won a championship. That’s been a disappointment. We didn’t win as many races as we would have liked to this year, but to win three championships just makes a statement.”
Taking home the hardware turned the narrative of a difficult season for Ford on its head. Introducing a new body style for Cup that weekend was icing on the cake. Teams were switching to the new Mustang Dark Horse style that had a fresh look, improved nose/bumper clips and, in theory, better handling and aerodynamics. 2024 was the year in which momentum was supposed to carry over.
Instead? It’s shaping up to be a repeat of 2023.
Five races into the season, Ford has yet to win a race at the Cup level. In fact, they’re 0-for-across-the-board in all three NASCAR national divisions, posting just a handful of top-five finishes in Xfinity and Trucks.
In the point standings, while it’s still early, Ford drivers make up just three of the 16 available playoff spots in Cup. Chevrolet, by comparison, has seven of their drivers in the current field despite the oldest body style. Both manufacturers have the same number of full-time teams (14) but have achieved very different results thus far in 2024.
Toyota, like Ford, debuted a new body style with its Camry and achieved immediate success on tracks a mile or less. The Toyotas dominated both last Sunday’s (March 17) race at Bristol Motor Speedway and the previous weekend at Phoenix Raceway, leading a whopping 700 out of the last 812 laps run (86.2%).
RFK Racing was the best of the Ford bunch those last two weeks, posting three…
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