Ford is being left in the dust six weeks into the NASCAR season

After the Daytona 500, you'd be hard pressed to find a NASCAR fan who thought Ford would be bringing up the rear of the pack in wins six weeks into the season. 

While a Chevy in William Byron won the Great American Race, Fords led 106 of the race's 200 laps. Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and David Ragan were all viable threats to win before a huge crash wiped out the field. 

Fords were once more strong at Atlanta, with defending champion Ryan Blaney coming up just three one thousandths of a second short of victory. 

However, after six races, Fords are still yet to win a race. After Toyota destroyed the field at Phoenix and Bristol, they were beaten by Hendrick Motorsports at COTA on Sunday. The one manufacturer not to be found in race-winning contention? Ford. 

The highest finishing blue oval on Sunday was Chris Buescher in eighth, the Texas native's fourth top 10 in the first six races. Ryan Blaney is the Ford driver highest in the standings currently, sitting third, 80 points above the playoff cutline. 

While Blaney and Buescher have been consistent to open the season, they, along with the rest of the Ford drivers, have failed to do the most important thing in racing: win. 

Toyota and Chevy have each had weekends where they've blown away the competition. Daytona is the closest Ford has come to that, but they still failed to capture the ultimate prize. 

Aside from Buescher and Blaney, only one other Ford, 2012 champion Brad Keselowski, resides in the playoff picture in 16th. Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric sit right outside the top 16, but just three Fords inside the current postseason picture just isn't good enough for a manufacturer that has won the last two NASCAR Cup Series championships. 

One of the most shocking facts of the 2024 season thus far is that two-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano sits just 22nd in points, 33 points back of the Keselowski for the final playoff spot. Logano only has one top 10 through the first six races, a ninth place finish at Las Vegas. For a driver and team with a championship pedigree, something has to change in order for the No. 22 team to find themselves in title contention. 

Noah Gragson, who was the most consistent driver out of the Stewart-Haas stable for the first few weeks finished 34th on raw speed, while his SHR teammates in Josh Berry and Ryan Preece didn't fare much better, with both drivers finishing outside the top 20. Even the lovable underdogs in Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland have fallen off after they showed winning speed in the first two races. 

Rick Ware Racing driver Justin Haley was the most consistent Ford throughout the day, running anywhere from ninth to 13th throughout the race before finishing a solid 17th. 

For a young race team trying to grow, that's a solid day to add to what's been a solid season. However, all good things must come to an end — Haley was disqualified after post-race inspection, relegating him to a last place finish. 

While Ford does have the defending champion doing good things for them, most of their drivers are in the slums of the pack to start the season. Something has to change going into Sunday's race at Richmond, but it seems like nobody in Detroit knows the answer. 

Plenty of Ford executives will be pacing the boardrooms this week, and they need to figure out an answer before Toyota and Chevy run away with the season.