DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – – When the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series holds its final practice on Saturday, Ryan Blaney and No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford won’t be taking part.
Blaney, who finished third in Thursday night’s first Can-Am Duel, shook down his car on Friday after his team changed to the Daytona 500 engine. The No. 21 won’t see any more action on the track until the green flag drops for the Great American Race.
“Everyone swaps over to their race engines today pretty much,” said Blaney, who was sixth fastest overall and quickest in the Ford camp during Friday’s second practice session. “That’s what we did, so we wanted to go out there for 10 laps just to make sure there were no leaks and everything runs smoothly.
“We got enough data for the engine guys to look at and make sure everything is OK, so that was just a test run on our race motor. We’re not going to run (on Saturday), so all we have to do now is get ready and make sure everything is ready to go for the 500.”
With his third-place finish in the Duel—where he rallied from one lap down—Blaney earned the fifth starting spot in Sunday’s race.
Source: Reid Spencer/NASCAR Wire Service
Catchfence.com News Director, Mark Stiles, Sidebar: Having to go to a backup car due to a wreck in Thursday’s Can-Am Duel qualifier at Daytona, Martin Truex Jr., and the Furniture Row Racing team plan on not participating in “Happy Hour” (final) practice as well.
After Friday’s final practice session of the day, Truex felt the backup car was making laps close to how the primary car was making.
“The only drafting we did with our primary the other day was with the Gibbs cars– our Toyota teammates. We drafted again with the Gibbs cars today in practice and felt our backup was real similar to the primary,” stated Truex Jr. regarding his backup No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota on Friday. “It’s really hard to tell until you get into racing conditions. Hopefully the backup will act similar in the big pack as our primary did last night in the duel race. I was real happy with the primary and felt we had a competitive car. I appreciate all the hard work from the guys. They didn’t get much sleep last night. They stayed late and arrived early today. We don’t plan on practicing tomorrow. Our Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota is race ready.”
