News

Track:    Auto Club Speedway

Race:     TreatMyClot.com 300

Date:     March 19, 2016

No. 22 America's Tire Ford Mustang – Ryan Blaney

Start:  11th 

Finish: 20th 

Status: Running

Laps Completed: 148/150

Laps Led:  0

Owner's Points Position (behind leader):  9th (-37 pts.)

Recap: Ryan Blaney and the No. 22 America's Tire Ford Mustang ran inside the top-10 all day until damage from a mid-race incident resulted in him finishing 20th, two laps down in Saturday's TreatMyClot.com 300 at Auto Club Speedway. Blaney and the team started the 300 mile event from the 11th position. Once the race started, Blaney quickly made his way into the top-five. He communicated his Mustang was tight in the center of the corners and on exit, and lacked takeoff speed, a condition the team would improve throughout the race. By lap 104, Blaney would find himself in the second position, battling the No. 18 of Kyle Busch for the race lead. Eventually, Blaney would settle into second. On lap 109, Blaney and the No. 20 of Erik Jones were battling for position when the two made contact. Blaney suffered significant right-rear damage after hitting the wall and slowly lost track positon.  Unfortunately, Blaney would finish 20th, two laps down by the end of the race. 

Quote:  "We were OK early and got better and better.  There were a couple of runs I thought we were really good, especially towards the end because we could make up ground that we lost in the beginning.  We were racing hard with the 19 and the 20 and we weren't very good on a short run.  We had to hold on and fight to try to stay as far up as we could until we could start reeling them back in.  I just kind of turned up in front of the 20.  I didn't know he was out there.  It's obviously my fault, so I'm sorry to him for turning up in front of him, but I just didn't know he was out there.  I thought I had enough time to get back up and get in front of him and it cost me.  That ruined our day.  We had a decent car, but the promise is we've gotten better over the past couple of weeks and we can at least run with the top guys who have been dominating this year, so there are some things we can take away."