Reflecting on last season, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team crew chief Jeremy Bullins said he was more impressed with driver Ryan Blaney’s seventh place in the fall Kansas race than his fourth in the Talladega spring race.
After another strong ninth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway, the team returns to Kansas Speedway this weekend for Saturday night’s GoBowling 400.
“I feel like there are so many things out of your control to get a good finish at Talladega and Daytona that can affect the finishing order,” Bullins said. “At intermediate tracks, when you get a good finish, generally you earned it, like our sixth place at Vegas this year.”
Blaney, who agrees with his crew chief’s assessment of last season’s best finishes, says he enjoys racing at Kansas Speedway. “I like Kansas,” he said. “It’s always been a decent track for me. ‘Dega is a good equalizer but Kansas really challenges teams and driver skill to run well. It’s the fastest intermediate track we have been to and tires don’t fall off so it’ll be a different animal. We will have to adjust.”
The Sunoco NASCAR Rookie of the Year contender said running the race at night will make the Kansas experience a little different. “It’s going to be a little more difficult to pass being a night race, but should be a good show to watch,” he said.
Bullins said the compressed schedule at Kansas (two practices and qualifying on Friday before the Saturday night race) does present challenges.
“Any time you have a schedule change you have to make sure you manage your time wisely but it’s not a schedule we’ve never had before so we are ready for that,” Bullins explained. “Friday will be a long day for the guys. That’s probably the biggest challenge.”
Although the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion’s 2015 seventh-place finish at Kansas came with a different aero package than the team will run this year, Bullins said the setup from this year’s top-10 result in Las Vegas is a good starting point.
“Certainly running well at Kansas last year won’t hurt and we have some good notes to read through,” Bullins said. “But I feel like where we were at Vegas will carry over to this weekend. Kansas is very similar to what we dealt with at Vegas. You have to have a fast car and good strategy and that plays everywhere.”
Blaney heads into Kansas City 18th in the driver standings and trails Chase Elliott on the Rookie of the Year chart by 27 points.
“I don’t worry too much about the points,” Blaney said. “I just want to run well and work on trying to win.”
Practice sessions for The GoBowling 400 begin at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 6 and can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). Qualifying will take place later that day at 6:45 p.m. EDT and will be broadcast live on FS1. The GoBowling 400 begins on FS1 at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 7.
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