Immediately following the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 14, I was surprised to find out that the entire top 20 consisted of Chevrolets.
While the result is still incredibly impressive, it’s not as surprising as I originally thought.
While Toyota has six full-time entries this season thanks to four cars with Joe Gibbs Racing and two with Sam Hunt Racing, Ford is not pulling its weight, and it ultimately reflects how the Blue Ovals seem to feel about its development program.
Throughout the 2026 O’Reilly season, Ford will have two — yes, you read that right, two — full-time entries. AM Racing will field the No. 25 for Nick Sanchez, while Hettinger Racing is attempting the full season with its No. 5, which Luke Fenhaus drove at Daytona and will do so again at EchoPark Speedway.
Additionally, AM Racing said it will field a part-time second car, the No. 52, for Daniel Dye.
And … that’s it. That’s all for Ford in O’Reilly.
There is a much bigger representation from the Blue Ovals in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, but just about every driver in a Ford truck is likely set to be a Truck lifer or one-off NASCAR participant.
The only drivers who appear to have some inkling of higher aspirations that drive Fords are Jake Garcia, who is in his third Truck season, Luke Baldwin, who will contest just a 12-race schedule with Team Reaume, and maybe Cole Butcher, a rookie this year who seems like he’s making a more permanent jump to NASCAR from late models.
Ford’s presence in the lower series (or lack thereof) has been a subject of chatter for many years, really ever since RFK Racing and Team Penske closed their lower series shops. The manufacturer taking a stance of poaching drivers away from other manufacturers instead of developing its own has only furthered that chatter.
But the 2025 offseason for the Blue Ovals all but proved that it almost has no interest in lower series racing anymore.
Haas Factory Team announced that it would switch manufacturers for 2026, jumping from Ford to Chevy, bringing with it RSS Racing so it could maintain its technical alliance. That left just AM as the lone Ford team, but even its future was in question when it was originally announced that it was selling its assets to Sigma Performance Services.
While it had been rumored that Alpha Prime Racing was going to jump ship to Ford and become the manufacturer’s factory-backed team, that ended up not happening. Perhaps even more surprising was when Hettinger announced it would run the full 2026 season, the single-car organization would become Ford’s factory-backed team.
Afterward, it was announced that AM’s sale to Sigma did not go through, bringing it back to the Ford camp. But after that, no one else is in a Blue Oval this season barring any other announcements.
That leaves two Fords on the O’Reilly entry list at EchoPark to fend for themselves against six Toyotas and a whopping 31 Chevrolets.
Between that and its veteran Truck roster, it’s safe to say that Ford has given up on lower series development. It’s easy to place blame on so many teams jumping ship in O’Reilly and the fact that ThorSport Racing and Reaume are opting for drivers more likely to be Truck lifers. However, Ford could easily have a conversation with either of those teams in an effort to get more development drivers or have conversations with RFK and Penske about opening up their O’Reilly programs (or a Truck program if desired) again.
And ultimately, the lack of Fords in the lower series not only curtails any sort of driver development pipeline for the manufacturer, it also stunts the growth of rising stars in the sport. With Toyota’s development pipeline seemingly oversaturated on a regular basis, and Chevrolet’s overabundance of entries to allow for both young guns and veterans, drivers who sign with Ford in series such as the ARCA Menards Series have no path forward unless they align with Chevy or Toyota.
For a manufacturer who is rooted in racing history, to only show up with two cars at EchoPark for NASCAR’s second-tier series is surprising. To put its backing behind the unproven Hettinger (which doesn’t have a full-time driver) instead of the already proven AM (which fields a winner in Sanchez) is equally, if not more, surprising.
It feels like Ford’s future in the sport is in question as its lower series entries dwindle. And with a fourth manufacturer inevitably on the way to O’Reilly and Cup, Ford really needs to re-evaluate where its future in the sport lies.
Otherwise, it almost feels like NASCAR will be back to three manufacturers just as quickly has it will have gotten four.
When the aero and horsepower rules are skewed against you, common sense says, in order to be competitive, run what the sandbox owner likes to see in victory lane.
Yea well will see At the end Ford always is on top last few yrs And Ford won all 3 Nascar divisions so say what you want Ford will be there at the end guranteed
Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith don’t have Cup aspirations? Riggs could certainly work his way up to be a Cup competitor someday, Chandler’s status seems up in the air, but he’s super young as well.
I’ve noticed Ford’s lack of interest in XfinOreillyWide and trucks as well. Even a bit in Cup, with no top tier replacment for SHR, which thanks to Kevin Harvick had some elite results. Ford has allowed their ranks to slowly atrophy, through attrition.
This seems to be a prudent business decision. The days of “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” are long gone, at least from the perspective of selling a popular family car. Ford barely makes cars at all, so the need to be associated with “stock car” racing matters less now than it ever has, and if there’s a group of people who buy trucks based on the truck series, I’ve never met any of them. I can’t imagine anyone thinking they need a new Mustang or F-150 based upon whether Ryan Blaney or Jake Garcia win a race.
I’d guess Ford looked at their motorsports budget and thought likely a few people would buy Mustangs based upon IMSA cars. They bear a much closer resemblance to the actual cars available for sale, and IMSA is cheaper to chase than NASCAR. Also, while IMSA remains niche, they are enjoying a bit of a renaissance, with 11 manufacturers currently in the GTD series. That latter fact is rather telling.
Then, from a standpoint of positioning themselves as a technology leader (whether they really are or not), Ford bought into F1 with Red Bull. F1’s audience is both younger and more affluent on average, which are obviously coveted demographics. Not to mention F1 has a much larger global fan base, and Ford is very much a global company.
It’s actually odd to me that Ram/Dodge is entering NASCAR now, when the sport seems to be waning in popularity, and doing its level best to avoid any meaningful changes to regain past glory. Then again, Stellantis (owner of Ram/Dodge) seems to be roughly as clueless as NASCAR, and on a similar overall trajectory. I actually have more faith in NASCAR to fix their issues. That’s a low bar indeed.
You are absolutely right in saying that nascar will be back to three manufacturers. For many years Nascar, Chevrolet and toyota have worked very hard to force Ford out of racing. Nascar has been trying for decades. Between the three of them they are finally succeeding. Ford will be out of nascar soon.