Mid-Race Incident Leads to 35th-Place Finish for Reed at Bristol

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In: Xfinity Series News

Roush Fenway Racing driver Ryan Reed and the No. 16 Lilly Diabetes/American Diabetes Association team finished 35th on Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) after starting 22nd and getting caught up in an incident on Lap 150, putting them in the garage for lengthy repairs.

“I know our bad luck is just typical Bristol, but it’s just so frustrating to have something like that happen that you can’t control,” said Reed. “Once we replaced the whole rear end we were running our fastest lap times of the race. It makes it that much more frustrating when you know your car is so good but you aren’t able to make up any ground. We will move on to Road America next week and look to rebound.”

Reed started from the 22nd position on Friday evening, but quickly made his way up to the 17th position by Lap 6. He dropped back to 22nd by Lap 32 and said the No. 16 Lilly Diabetes/American Diabetes Association Ford Mustang needed grip. He made it back up to 19th by the caution on Lap 74, when the team had their first opportunity to make adjustments. Crew chief Phil Gould brought Reed down pit road on Lap 78 for four fresh tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Reed restarted 15th on Lap 82.

Reed maintained the 15th position until the halfway point of the race at Lap 150. At that time, a car in front of Reed blew a tire, collecting Reed in the accident and sending him down pit road to assess the damage. While the damage to the left-rear of the car was visible, Reed also reported that it felt like something was severely broken in the rear of the car. The team sent Reed to the garage to replace a broken truck arm in the rear of the No. 16 Ford Mustang.

Reed returned the track on Lap 170, 21 laps down, but only completed one lap before reporting that the problem was not fixed. The team brought Reed back to the garage and replaced the entire rear-end of the car. He returned to the track in the 36th position on Lap 233, just as the caution flag was displayed. Reed restarted in that position with 60 laps to go, before the caution wa displayed again four laps later.

The field restarted with 50 to go while Reed was scored 35th. At this time, he was running top-10 lap times and reported to Gould that the car at that time was the best car he had ever had at BMS. With 20 laps to go, the caution was displayed again. The team did not pit, and restarted 35th, 82 laps down with 14 laps to go.

Reed maintained his track position and continued to run fast lap times through the last caution period with four laps to go, which sent the race into overtime. The field made their final restart on Lap 305, allowing Reed to cross the finish line 35th.

After BMS, Reed remains 10th in the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship standings.

Reed and the rest of the NASCAR XFINITY Series will be back on track on Saturday, August 27th at Road America.

RFR PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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