Blaney wins Canadian thriller over Quiroga

Ryan Blaney pulled a cross-over move on German Quiroga in the final turn to win the Chevy Silverado 250 Sunday.

A great finish was in store for the second straight year at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park as Ty Dillon and Chase Elliott dueled for the win in 2013. 

Quiroga stayed on the tail-gate of Blaney for a number of laps before making the pass in Turn 9 and clearing him momentarily.  Blaney took advantage of Quiroga getting loose in Turn 10 and battled side-by-side, with Blaney edging out the No. 77 truck by .050 seconds.

The No. 29 team was on a one-stop strategy and made their only pit stop on lap 30 of the 64-lap race, while many others pitted for their second and final stop within the next 10 laps. The first caution of the race came out on lap 45 when John Hunter Nemechek stalled on track and wiped out Blaney’s 4.5 second lead over Quiroga.

Blaney’s teammate, Alex Tagliani, led the first seven laps before giving up the lead for a pit stop.  Tagliani’s crew had a slow stop and the Canadian driver had to work his way back through the field.  The No. 19 truck looked to make a move on Cole Custer towards the end, which led to the No. 00 truck going off track.  Shorty thereafter, Gray Gaulding got into Tagliani and the No. 19 stalled to bring out another caution.  Tagliani finished 16th on the afternoon.

Custer appeared to have one of the fastest trucks late in the race until the dust-up with Tagliani and sending him to the back of the lead lap.  The 16-year-old driver rebounded to finish ninth.

Speaking of 16-year-olds, Gaulding had a fast No. 20 truck and led a few laps early on.  He held off the likes of Darrell Wallace, Jr. and Tagliani just past mid-way through the race.  Gaulding put pressure on Erik Jones for the third spot, but the NTS Motorsports driver came home in fourth.  His fellow K&N East competitor and teammate Brennan Newberry finished seventh, making it two top-10 finishes on the day for NTS.

Other Canadian drivers who competed on Sunday were Andrew Ranger and Cameron Hayley, both making their Truck Series debuts.  Ranger showed speed early and muscled his No. 53 Dodge to a fifth-place finish.  Hayley picked up the 11th spot in the final rundown for Turner

The win for Blaney was his first on the season and third in his career.  It is also the second straight Truck win for Brad Keselowski Racing, as the owner himself Keselowski won last week’s race at Bristol.  Blaney chopped slightly into Johnny Sauter’s points lead, as the series heads next to Chicagoland Speedway in less than two weeks.  The ThorSport trucks continue to sit 1-2 in points, as Ron Hornaday’s No. 30 truck team didn’t make the trip to Canada and forced the 56-year-old driver to miss the race while sitting third in points before Mosport.

The series’ next race will be the Lucas Oil 225 at Chicagoland on Friday, September 12 with coverage starting on FOX Sports 1 at 8:30 p.m. ET.

 

Chevy Silverado 250 Top Ten

  1. #29 Ryan Blaney
  2. #77 German Quiroga
  3. #51 Erik Jones
  4. #20 Gray Gaulding
  5. #53 Andrew Ranger
  6. #88 Matt Crafton
  7. #9 Brennan Newberry
  8. #98 Johnny Sauter
  9. #00 Cole Custer
  10. #17 Timothy Peters

           

Kyle Magda