We Look at Ford's Dwindling Xfinity Program.

Ford Performance was the 2020 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship winning car for Austin Cindric, they had 15 wins on the season, 2021 they came oh so close by a corner and door slam into 2nd with Cindric and 5 wins. In 2022, they had 1 win from a Cup regular and '23 brought their first full-time winner in 2 seasons. So what happened?

PORTLAND, OREGON - JUNE 03: Cole Custer, driver of the #00 Haas Automation Ford, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway on June 03, 2023 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Ford Performance got their first NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division (Now Xfinity Series) Championship way back in 2002 with Greg Biffle racing the No. 60 for Jack Roush. Since the inception of the Xfinity Series back in 1982, Ford has brought home 6 Championships including 1 Busch Grand National with Biffle, 1 Busch Series with Carl Edwards in 2007, 2 Nationwide Series Championships with Ricky Stenhouse Jr, and 2 Xfinity Series titles with Chris Buescher and Austin Cindric. They got their first Manufactures Championship in 1995 with 14 wins on the season. 

Ford has always had a great representation in NASCAR's middle national series dating all the way back to 1982 with teams running the Ford Fairmont from 1982-86, the Thunderbird from 87-97, and Taurus from 97-2005. Ford brought the All-New Fusion to the series from 2006-2010 with the Mustang pony car taking over from 2011 until today. 

Over the last 10 years, Ford Performance has been a force in the series scoring numerous wins each year. 15 wins in 2013 and again in 2020. 87 wins in the decade as of 6/5/2023. Something seemed to have changed for the brand after 2020. But what was it? 

It sure wasn't the number of teams or cars, only 2 full-time teams ran Mustangs in 2020. Team Penske ran the No. 22 for 2020 Champ Austin Cindric and Stewart-Haas Racing ran the No. 98 for Chase Briscoe. Combined the duo pulled out 15 wins. 2019 SHR fielded 2 cars plus Penske's for Cindric and the 3 got 10 wins.

In 2018, Roush Fenway shut down its 2 car program leaving essentially just the 2 main teams for Ford until 2021 with the addition of Ryan Sieg's RSS Racing. But that year also saw the end of the Team Penske Xfinity program whose spot was filled by SS-Greenlight Racing which fielded 2 Mustangs for just that year. 2023 saw that program replaced by AM Racing's new Xfinity program and an increased number of full-time entries from RSS leaving Ford Performance with 6. 

Performance

Ford Performance has fielded some fast race cars over the last couple of years. You've had part-timers win and perform well such as Cole Custer who won in 2022 as a Cup regular. Truck Series regular Hailie Deegan ran a very impressive race at the Fall Vegas race for SS-Greenlight last season finishing top-15 in her Xfinity debut. RSS Racing is an underfunded team that has had some performance especially out of Ryan Seig's 39 car which was a huge deal for the team. But overall nothing major to write home about besides Custer's California win. 

Ford has had no consistency in teams outside of SHR and now RSS. SHR's series regular Riley Herbst has improved over the past year or so, but still has yet to break into victory lane and is slowing down this season.

It's tough to say Ford Performance has a lack of talented drivers in the series as it has 2018 Truck Champion Brett Moffitt running the No. 25 for AM Racing (new team for 2023) and Cole Custer finally got on the scoreboard at Portland. But with a limited number of competitive Ford rides in the series. The miss drivers such as Zane Smith who stayed in Trucks or Deegan who out performed her Truck in Xfinity last season.


So what do you think? What is holding Ford Performance back from being weekly contenders in the Xfinity Series? 

By: Tom Luttermoser