Blaney, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Turn Their Attention To Talladega After Engine Failure At Texas

Eddie Wood, co-owner of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion, has seen his share of good days and bad in his long career in the Sprint Cup Series. And over the years, he’s come to realize that mechanical issues sometimes surface at the most inopportune times.

That was the case for Wood and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Ryan Blaney had started the race from the 13th position and was running strong in the early going when the engine in the No. 21 Fusion developed a miss. Even with just seven cylinders pulling their weight, Blaney was able to run respectable speeds and stay on the lead lap.

As the laps clicked off, the engine began to lose more power and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team elected to call it a night rather than risk damage to the car or cause an incident on the track. Blaney was credited with the 42nd finishing position.

“I’ve been racing a long time,” Wood said. “These things just happen, and for whatever reason they always seem to happen when you have one of your best runs going.”

“That’s just the way it is.”
 
Crew chief Jeremy Bullins doesn’t have as many races under his belt as Wood, but he too knows that a mechanical failure isn’t as bad in the long run as it might seem at the moment it occurs.

“The bright side is I feel like we had a really good car,” Bullins said. “We made a couple changes there to make it a better long run car, and after a couple of laps it looked like it really had speed, and he was starting to move back up through the field.  

“It just didn’t go our way. It’s unfortunate. We’ve got a lot of power, so we won’t complain and we’ll go on and get ready for the next one.”

Blaney, Bullins and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew return to the track at Talladega Superspeedway on May 1-3 for the GEICO 500.

Wood Brothers Racing PR