Future of Ford in NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series uncertain

Less than a month after the 2025 season, Ford has all but disappeared from the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. In the Phoenix championship race, there were five Ford Mustangs on the track. Now, there appears to be just one Ford team, and that hasn’t been confirmed for 2026 at this time, either.

If we are basing manufacturer loyalty off of the 2025 season, AM Racing is the only Ford team left in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series. Haas Factory Team has gone to Chevy. RSS Racing has gone to Chevy.

At times in the season, RSS and AMR ran extra cars. The Ford pipeline was at least there, if not a little outdated and shaky. Now, it looks like it isn’t going to be there at all.

This comes as Ford Performance rebrands to Ford Racing, and as NASCAR expands to four manufacturers in the Craftsman Truck Series. If Ford doesn’t have a presence in the O’Reilly Series next season, is it another case of one step forward and two steps back for NASCAR?

The good news is that the racing in the O’Reilly Series is fantastic. The viewers are tuning in on The CW as well. If it becomes a two-manufacturer series, it loses a little bit of luster. It especially hurts losing such an iconic American brand, which is tied to the foundations of NASCAR, like Ford.

For years now, Chevrolet and Toyota have been building development programs. That includes pipelines in the stock car world, the grassroots scene, which helps develop talent for the future. Ford, ultimately, relies on those two manufacturers to develop their talent at this point.

Does Ford want to be in NASCAR OAPS?

There are different ways to develop a NASCAR driver. With that caveat, it would be disappointing to see Ford leave the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. It would just be strange to see it be such a quiet and unexplained exit. That is the one thing that gives me pause on calling this the end for Ford.

We won’t know until we know. But as of right now, things don’t look great for Blue Oval fans. This also makes me think about comments Brad Keselowski made almost two years ago. He would rather not develop future drivers in the O’Reilly Series, instead saying he’d like to expand to IMSA.

“As NASCAR continues to get heavier and heavier into road course racing, I think that pedigree (IMSA) offers a lot of advantages to the ecosystem of a successful Cup team,” said Keselowski. “I don’t see us on a path to an Xfinity or Truck team in the near future.”

This might be the future strategy for Ford and their Cup Series teams. When you think of Ford drivers in the Truck Series who might develop into Cup drivers, Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith are pretty much it. And they have a lot of development to go through before that is a reality.

So, what is the future of Ford in NASCAR’s second-tier series? Bleak at best, currently. I’m more interested in the future of RFK Racing and its driver development plans. When the time comes and Brad Keselowski retires, will they just pick up a driver who is already proven? Or will they have a young star ready to plug into the Cup program?