Ryan Blaney Phoenix International Raceway Recap

Ryan Blaney (@RyanBlaney22), driver of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150, scored a fourth-place finish in Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix (Avondale, Ariz.) International Raceway, his 11th top five of the season.  Blaney is 25 points behind the leader in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings entering the Nov. 14 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

 

The scheduled 150-lap race at the one mile desert track was one of the oddest NASCAR races in recent memory.  The start was delayed for nearly an hour due to a power outage and another blackout on lap 126 led NASCAR officials to decide to call the race with just 24 laps remaining.  Seven cautions slowed the pace for 48 laps.  A multiple truck accident on lap 2 dumped oil on the frontstretch which forced the next 17 laps to be run under yellow as officials used a heavy amount of speedy dry to soak up the fluid.  The race was red flagged on lap 43 so safety crews could remove a race truck from the track following an accident in Turn 3.

 

Blaney qualified 17th and did a good job picking his way through traffic and avoiding accidents early in the event.  He climbed inside the top 10 by lap 47 and moved up to seventh place by lap 83 when a sequence of green flag pit stops began.  Ryan was third when he pitted under green for four tires and adjustments on lap 92.  When the green flag pit stop sequence was complete on lap 96, Blaney was 10th but one lap down.

 

He was able to make up the lost distance thanks to the fifth caution on lap 101.  He took the wave around back on to the lead lap and lined up 10th when the race went green on lap 111.  He steadily worked his way to the front on the next two restarts, climbing up to fifth by lap 121.  He picked off fourth place on lap 123 and was in hot pursuit of third when the final caution waved on lap 126 for a power outage that would eventually halt the race for good. 

 

BKR PR