Ryan Blaney and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Fusion will carry new colors – literally and figuratively – into this weekend’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The iconic No. 21 Ford Fusion will be sponsored by PPG, the leading global coatings and specialty products company that was founded in 1883 as Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. Appropriately, the No. 21 PPG Fusion is colored in blue on the front of the car and streaks to white at the rear, giving a look of speed even when the car is sitting still.
Crew chief Jeremy Bullins said the PPG Ford Fusion will be hard to miss as Blaney competes in Saturday’s 500-mile event. “Our PPG paint scheme is really cool and will definitely pop at night under the lights,” Bullins said.
But the rookie Sprint Cup crew chief is also hoping to get his team’s car some notice for its speed as well. “We’ve been looking forward to coming back to Charlotte since the Coca-Cola 600,” he said. “We feel like we were headed for a top-10 finish before we had engine trouble, and a top-10 in your first Coke 600 is a big deal.”
Bullins, like most of the regulars on the Sprint Cup circuit, relishes racing close to home, as the track is just around the corner from the Wood Brothers’ shop on Highway 49 in Harrisburg. “I certainly don’t mind sleeping in my bedat night either,” he said. Blaney, Bullins and the rest of the No. 21 PPG team have a lot to live up to when it comes to racing at Charlotte.
Over the years, the Wood Brothers team has run 110 races at Charlotte, with six victories, 24 top-five and 38 top-10 finishes and an astonishing 20 poles including 13 in a row during the 1970s. “It’s certainly a track the 21 team has had a lot of success at over the years,” Bullins said. “It’s always great to run well as usually we have a lot of family guests there as well, and we want to make them proud.”
The Bank of America 400 is the fourth of 10 races in the championship-deciding Chase for the Sprint Cup, and that ratchets up the effort for teams in the Chase as well as those like the PPG team that are not competing for the title. “It’s another pivotal race in the Chase, and we look forward to competing with guys we know are bringing their best to see where we stack up,” Bullins said.
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