Blaney To Start 25th At Texas

Ryan Blaney and the No. 21 Snap-on Ford Fusion will start Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway from the 25th starting position, but team co-owner Eddie Wood is confident that the Snap-on Fusion won’t stay there for long.

“We will be fine in the race,” Wood said. “The Snap-on Ford is really good when it comes to a race set-up. We were just a little too loose in the first lap of qualifying, especially in turns one and two.”

Blaney wound up making a second run on the clock during qualifying and improved his time, but he ended up just 0.008 of a second shy of posting the 24th-fastest speed, which would have allowed him to advance to the second of three rounds of knock-out qualifying. His official speed in qualifying was 195.525 miles per hour.

Friday’s practice session was a different story altogether, as Blaney was seventh fastest with a best lap at 195.879 mph.

“We were really good in practice,” Wood said. “We’re all looking forward to practice on Saturday and the race on Sunday.”

Wood Brothers Racing PR