A late-race crash caused Ryan Blaney and the Quick Lane/Motorcraft Ford Fusion to finish 36th in the Crown Royal Presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard in Indianapolis Sunday
Starting 17th on the grid, Blaney was in the top-15 by lap nine and was 16th when he was passed by eventual winner Kyle Busch to go a lap down on the 117th revolution. Pit strategy put the Wood Brothers’ iconic No. 21 in position to take advantage of the lucky dog wave around, but the multi-car accident that would have put Blaney back on the lead lap instead put him into the wall with seven laps to go in regulation.
“I didn’t really see much,” Blaney said. “I unfortunately got back there, and I didn’t see who got together. I thought I was by it and then the 31 spun out and I didn’t have anywhere to go. I’ll have to watch it on replay, but it stinks.
“I thought we had a decent car,” he continued. “We kind of put ourselves in a hole, and we were trying to fight back from that and this just made a bad day worse. People get racy and, unfortunately, we got caught up in it.”
Crew chief Jeremy Bullins added, “Today wasn’t the day we were hoping for. We thought we finally turned the corner and were racing for the lucky dog and got caught up in the caution that would have given us the lucky dog. It’s unfortunate that it turned out that way.”
That finish moved Blaney to 20th in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with six races to go before the Chase starts in Chicago on September 18.
The team now heads to Pocono Raceway for the Pennsylvania 400 on Sunday, July 31, at 1:30 p.m. ET.
