Ryan Blaney Bristol Post-Race Report

Ryan Blaney (@RyanBlaney22), driver of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150, made his second career start at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) during Wednesday night’s UNOH 200.

   

Under the first caution of the night, crew chief, Doug Randolph, brought Blaney’s Cooper Standard Ford to pit road for fuel, four tires, two up on the track bar and a wedge in the right rear. After coming in fourth, Blaney exited in the same position while not losing ground to his competitors.

 

Things got a bit testy on lap 138 when the driver of the No. 17 moved up the race track, preventing Blaney from taking over the second position even though Blaney was in place to do so. This caused Blaney to get loose in the marbles, scape the wall and eventually shuffled back to third position behind his teammate and owner, Brad Keselowski.   

 

The final pit stop of the night for the Cooper Standard team came on lap 178, under caution. Randolph assured his crew to only take two tires and a small amount of fuel so they would retain track position. The execution was flawless, like it had been all night on pit road for the team. Blaney didn’t lose one spot on pit road and restarted in the third position.

 

After fighting hard all night to get back up front, where Blaney had been before his run-in on lap 138 with the No. 17, he found himself holding the first position after a few Trucks ran out of gas during the second to last restart of the race.

 

Blaney restarted first with just a few laps to go, but was unable to hold position due to lack of grip and came home with a very solid third place finish.

 

The No. 29 BKR team currently sits seventh in the NCWTS driver points standings, 77 points back from first. 

 

 

“I thought I had this one, but I couldn’t find the grip I needed on the final restart to hold off the No. 51 and the No. 17. It’s definitely refreshing to come to Bristol and run up front all day and ultimately put last weekend at Michigan to rest. I am looking forward to the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park race Labor Day weekend, because I know my team has been preparing very hard for that one and I’m ready to reward them.” – Ryan Blaney 

 

BKR PR