Ryan Blaney drove the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion from his 26th starting position to a 23rd-place flinish this afternoon at the challenging Sonoma Raceway road course.
Excellent pit strategy by crew chief Jeremy Bullins improved the rookie driver’s track position early in the race, advancing from from 25th to 14th as a result of the team’s first pit stop.
“Early on we short pitted and got some track position,” Blaney said. “It was a long day.”
A caution flag flew while Blaney was getting his second round of service and that enabled him to move to fifth on the leader board when the rest of the field pitted during the caution.
“We had some good fortune but I gave all the spots right back,” he said.
Still, Blaney stayed in the top 20 for much of the day, only dropping out of that group with fewer than 20 laps to go in the event.
With that result, Blaney drops a position in the driver points standings to 17th before returning to Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero 400, on Saturday July 2.
Ford Performance PR
