It appears Ford has decided to climb back into the fight after sitting out two weekends of NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series action. According to the latest sightings, Ford is returning to the grid at Dover with the RSS Racing team.
On Monday evening, NASCAR released the O’Reilly Series entry list for Dover, and one detail immediately stood out. Hettinger Racing was nowhere to be found. The organization had carried the Ford banner alone ever since AM Racing pulled Nick Sanchez’s No. 25 entry in early April.
Hettinger Racing also skipped the previous two NASCAR weekends, leaving Ford without a single car in the O’Reilly Series field. AM Racing had opened the 2026 season with Sanchez slated as its full-time driver, but the operation ultimately fell out of competition.
Hettinger Racing, meanwhile, attempted to keep its program afloat through a full schedule built around part-time drivers. The result left Ford’s footprint in the series hanging by a thread.
At the same time, RSS Racing remained active in competition, though under Chevrolet machinery, with Kyle Sieg driving the No. 28 Chevrolet SS in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The team’s part-time driver, Patrick Emerling, also made two starts this season in NASCAR’s Tier 2 division behind the wheel of the No. 38 Chevrolet.
Now, however, the story appears to have shifted again. RSS Racing’s third driver, Logan Bearden, could reportedly enter the Dover event following his one-race appearance earlier this season with Young’s Motorsports, where he drove the team’s No. 42 Chevrolet at Bristol. This time, though, the expectation is that the car underneath him will carry Ford branding instead of Chevrolet branding.
The update surfaced through racing reporter Colby Evans, who attached a photo of the No. 38 car while posting on X: “Well Ford is back in O’Reilly’s again for this weekend at Dover #38 Logan Bearden driving for RSS in the 38 car and it’s a Ford.”
Naturally, that opened the garage-door question everyone immediately asked: how does one team field cars with different manufacturers at the same time? In practice, that arrangement usually does not happen unless, technically, the entry is not functioning as a standard RSS Racing operation and is instead borrowing the number and operational points structure.
At NASCAR levels above ARCA, teams cannot simply mix a body from one manufacturer with an engine from another, meaning the setup is likely a legitimate Ford program.
Some smaller organizations operate with generic engine packages that support multiple manufacturers. In the Truck Series and ARCA Menards, generic engine combinations are more common, and the manufacturer associated with the body shell often carries less importance mechanically. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series operates differently.
Beyond branding, the hardware itself creates complications. Plumbing routes differ between manufacturers, including oil and coolant lines and the placement of radiator and oil-cooler inlets and outlets. So, switching manufacturers is not as simple.
Another possibility floating around the garage is that RSS Racing retained Ford engines from previous seasons instead of selling them during the winter shuffle. There may also have been former non-Haas Factory Team lease chassis still sitting in the Georgia shop waiting for another shot at life.
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