HOMESTEAD, Fla.: Interruptions or not, Ryan Blaney had another strong night in NASCAR Cup Series competition during Sunday night’s Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
A 267-lap race supposed to be underway shortly after 3:30 p.m. did not fall into a rhythm much before 8:00 p.m. because of numerous lightning delays, but when the action heated up on the 1.5-mile speedway, Blaney was thick in the battle.
Starting 11th, a fast No. 12 Menards | Jack Links Ford Mustang and strategy propelled him forward and following the event’s third caution for a lightning strike, a strong pit stop put him second on the restart to Chase Elliott.
A lap after taking the green flag, he would pass his close friend and take control of the field for 39 laps before Denny Hamlin passed him at Lap 86. Battling a loose race car, Blaney finished Stage 1 second and leaned on Todd Gordon to make the adjustments to keep him near the front.
With an air pressure and wedge adjustment to start Stage 2, Blaney powered back into the lead at Lap 91 and controlled the field for 30 laps but by the end of the stage, a loose race car sent him to fourth and hoping for a swing of adjustments for the final stretch.
Blaney would briefly take the lead on Lap 194 but as Stage 3 wore on under green flag conditions, Blaney still battled an ill-handling race car. Even with a Lap 217 green flag pit stop for tires, fuel and another round of adjustments including track bar and tape, Blaney would find himself inside the top-five for the final 50 laps.
Despite his best effort, Blaney didn’t have anything for leader Hamlin but found himself in a hellacious battle with Elliott where the two exchanged positions for several laps before Elliott passed the No. 12 inside the final 15 laps of the race.
Blaney fended off Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick to finish third, his fifth top-five finish in the last six weeks.
Blaney’s momentum was broke at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway last month where a mistake while running second sent him into the wall and a distant 40th place finish. Since then, he has recovered well.
Having speed following his final pit stop was important, but the High Point, N.C. native said that handling came into play, especially in Turns 3 and 4.
“When we came off pit road after that last green-flag stop we were a ways behind those two guys and we made up a lot of ground, tons of ground on them, and just got to them and everyone is running the wall,” said Blaney.
“You just get tight, especially in three and four. One and two there are multiple lanes, but three and four if you weren’t on the fence when you got 15 laps on your stuff, you were just tight and gonna hit the fence, so that made it hard for us to kind of go once we got there.
“The 8 (Reddick) was the same way with me. He kind of got there and stalled too, but I’m proud of the group. We had really good short-run speed early in the race and I thought by the end we had really good long-run speed, so we crossed over which is a good effort by the Jack Links team.”
Disappointed not to be in Victory Lane with fast race cars under the leadership of Gordon, Blaney is glad to be near the front.
“(We’re) just bringing good cars to the racetrack and executing pretty well,” Blaney sounded. “Besides Bristol here recently, we’ve been finishing really strong. Now just a mistake on my part.
“Todd Gordon, the whole No. 12 group, is doing really good. We can run two through five, we just have to figure out how to break through and get the win. I think we’re really close. Keep running like this, hopefully, it will come soon.”
And as for his relationship with Gordon after 12 races? Blaney insists the communication is great but hopes to improve on how they run at the beginning of a race rather than play catchup throughout.
“It’s been going well,” said Blaney on his relationship with Gordon. “I feel like Todd and I have gotten along really well. We’ve communicated great. The only thing that really stands out to me, some races we don’t start off very good. Atlanta and Martinsville we didn’t start off very good, but at the end of the race we were very good.
“We haven’t worked together that long. To be able to communicate like that kind of in the early part of our relationship has been really nice. I look back at a lot of the finishes, bad finishes we’ve had, of me wrecking in Bristol, tire coming apart at Fontana, the caution coming out in Vegas, we’ve had some really strong runs. That’s something to be proud of.”
Knowing that he was going to have a new crew chief at the end of the 2019 season, Blaney said he was always looking forward to working with Gordon and still does, he just can’t wait until everything comes full circle and they win.
“I was looking forward to it, looking forward to working with Todd,” sounded Blaney. “It’s been a nice run we’ve been on here. I hopefully can’t wait to get that first win together here soon. The group deserves it. We’re running good enough to do it. Just got to get a little bit better.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
