- Ryan Blaney won his first race of the season tonight as he captured the inaugural Iowa Corn 350.
- This is the second inaugural race Blaney has won, following his Charlotte Roval victory in 2018.
- The win is Blaney’s 11th career triumph and clinches a spot in the playoffs.
- Today’s win is Ford’s 731st all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
- It also marks Team Penske’s 95th series win with Ford.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – DID THIS ONE MEAN A LITTLE MORE? “Yeah, definitely. What a cool way to win here. This place means a lot to me and means a lot to my mom. We had a lot of people here tonight cheering us on, so they willed us to that one. Overall, I really appreciate the whole 12 boys. I mean, our car was really fast all night and we got a little bit better through the night and two tires was a good call there. I didn’t know how well I was gonna hold on. I started to struggle a little bit at the end, but had enough to hang on. I’m super proud of the effort. I appreciate Advance Auto Parts, Ford, Ford Performance, Menards, Discount Tire, Wurth, Snap On, DEX Imaging, Wabash – everything they do. It makes up a little bit from a couple weeks ago.”
HOW IS THE GOING TO WORK. ARE ALL 80 COMING TO VICTORY LANE? “I hope so. I don’t know. We’ll see, but I’m looking forward to seeing them. It’s always good to have family and I’ve been super lucky to have family that supports me through my career and it’s great that they’re still supporting me just as much as they day on Day 1. I always appreciate this sold out crowd. It was a cool weekend and really cool to win the first Cup race here. I can’t wait for us to come back for many more years.”
THAT’S A RARE BURNOUT. “Yeah. Home track. I’ve got to. It means a lot. It’s cool to win in a Truck here, an Xfinity car here and now a Cup car. That was cool. I’m worn out. It was a long race and driving hard. I figured I deserved a burnout, so hopefully Dale Inman isn’t too mad at me.”
UNOFFICIAL FORD FINISHING RESULTS:
1st – Ryan Blaney
6th – Joey Logano
7th – Josh Berry
10th – Brad Keselowski
12th – Todd Gilliland
13th – Justin Haley
16th – Noah Gragson
18th – Chris Buescher
20th – Harrison Burton
23rd – Michael McDowell
27th – Ryan Preece
28th – Chase Briscoe
30th – Austin Cindric
33rd – Kaz Grala
JOSH BERRY, No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I thought we had a really good race and a really good car. To score stage points like we did we had some great restarts in there and just that last restart didn’t really go our way. We lost a little bit of track position and just could never get it back, but, all in all, just really proud of everybody on the 4 team. They did a great job. That was a lot of fun, for sure. We’re gonna keep digging to keep getting better.”
DID YOU GET ANY DAMAGE WHEN YOU RAN INTO STENHOUSE BEFORE THAT RESTART? “I don’t know. It’s hard to say what that did. Obviously, it probably hurt it a little bit, but I think losing that much track position on the restart was more than anything. All in all, it was still a good day and I’m proud of our guys. We’ll keep digging.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We put ourselves in position there to win the race with the two-tire call. I just didn’t re-fire good on two. I tried to race Blaney and couldn’t hold him off and then I just kind of got swallowed up by a couple cars pretty quick. We just didn’t have enough fire-off. I think if I could have got out front, I probably would have been OK, but I couldn’t get out there.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 King’s Hawaiian/Casey’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Not bad. We just kind of ran in that eighth to 10th place spot for pretty much the whole race and sometimes a little worse. That’s kind of what we had and we just executed around it.”
HOW WAS THE TRACK AND TIRE WEAR FOR YOU? “Our car was really good on the long runs. I liked that long run, but the short runs we just didn’t have enough speed.”
NOAH GRAGSON, No. 10 Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a long, hot day. We struggled fine-tuning on the car. It was kind of loose in and tight center all race and never really got over any of the two. We rebounded saving fuel at the end and finished 16th.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra USA 30 Years Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We were really good at the beginning and the first pit stop we lost like 10 spots. It was just downhill from there. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. The pit stops again later in the race, we kept losing spots. The caution comes out at the worst time and traps us and then we were gonna get the wavearound and the 47 stays out and we’re one car behind him. Anything that could have gone wrong just went wrong.”
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