Blaney Drives PPG Ford Fusion to 14th-Place Finish At Charlotte

Ryan Blaney and the No. 21 PPG Ford Fusion team had a strong, solid run in Sunday’s rain-delayed Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Blaney started 16th and ran in the top 15 for the majority of the race – and in the top 10 at times – before finishing 14th.

“We didn’t start off too bad, and we progressively made it better throughout the day, which I was happy with,” Blaney said, adding that he had one sub-par green-flag run late in the race that kept him from making a bid for a top-10 finish.
 
“We slipped from about 10th to 13th or 14th and it’s just hard to get it back, especially when there are no more cautions and it’s green-flag sequences,” he said. “It’s hard to get it back and pass everybody.”

Blaney said he was particularly proud to have a good run in his team’s first and only race of the season with PPG as the primary sponsor.

“I’m really happy to have PPG on our Ford Fusion,” he said. “That was a lot of fun.”

Crew chief Jeremy Bullins and the Wood Brothers crew also had a good day on the pit box and on pit road, as team co-owner Eddie Wood pointed out.

“Jeremy made some great calls all day,” Wood said. “He made the call to short pit towards the end of the race, and that helped gain some spots back.

“The over-the-wall guys had great stops every time. It was a good, solid day all around.”

Blaney said Bullins also did a great job adjusting the PPG Fusion for a daytime race after initially preparing it for a Saturday night run, when the track would be cooler and present different set-up challenges.

“It was a good job by my guys being able to compensate from preparing to race last night to the heat of the day today, so they did a good job,” Blaney said.

While proud of their own success on Sunday, Blaney and Wood were offering congratulations to their fellow Ford racer Joey Logano and his No. 22 crew from Team Penske, which has an alliance with the Wood Brothers. Logano led 227 of 334 laps in winning the 500 and thereby earning a spot in Round 3 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“We’re really happy for [team owner] Roger Penske, Joey and [crew chief] Todd Gordon,” Wood said. “We were proud to have a good showing for PPG and the great people there, and it was a great day overall for Ford Motor Co.”

Now Blaney and the Wood Brothers head to Kansas Speedway for the second of three-straight races, the final one being at Talladega Superspeedway in two weeks.

Wood Brothers Racing PR