With the new season, NASCAR announced a new truck for the teams. Change can be good, though can be bad at times. To be competitive, a team must hit on the set-up sooner than the others. Concerns quickly surfaced that teams like Brad Keselowski Racing may fall behind compared to bigger organizations like Turner-Scott Motorsports. BKR driver Ryan Blaney says he’s not worried about that.
“I think my team has really been really prepared for this year, a lot more prepared than we were for 2013, I think,” he commented. “We were kind of behind the 8‑ball going into 2013, and it took us a while to really get going, and I think this year we’re a lot more prepared, and that’s just better for firing off good and starting the season off the way we need to.”
Part of the concern stems to the fact that BKR is one of the lone Ford teams in the field, though Blaney says that Ford is committed to their program.
“I think Ford has done an awesome job for us,” he said. “They’ve really stepped up their improvement for us on the racing side, and that’s really cool to see because they haven’t really had a big impact in the Truck Series for a while, and even that last year in 2013 they didn’t show us a ton of support, but this year they’ve really stepped it up, and with their help and Penske’s help, I think we’re really ahead of where we need to be, and I think that’s just going to let us compete a lot better with the KBMs and ThorSports, and there’s no more RCR, but I think it’s just going to put us in a better spot earlier in the season to put us in a better spot in the long run.”
Some of the concern surfaced more as the trucks hit Daytona for the test due to Blaney on bringing one truck down for the test. However, Blaney says that was done on purpose.
“If we think that if this truck can improve, we can go back and build another one with the improvements to it, better than bringing two trucks here and tearing both of them apart and having to put a new body on them,” Blaney explained. “I wouldn’t say we’re behind, it’s just kind of being smart and not wasting two trucks really if we think we can improve on this one.”
Blaney had a great rookie season last year, finishing sixth in points with a win, eight top fives and 13 top 10s. NASCAR left the option for teams to use 2013 trucks if they wanted to, though Blaney says BKR is going all new tucks this year – except for Eldora.
“We’ve been in the tunnel and we’ve seen how much improvements they are, how much faster they are, just how much better downforce they are and all that stuff,” he explained.
Blaney will be behind his familiar No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford in February for the season opener at Daytona, where he hopes to finish well to start his season on a good note.
“You really want to start out your year good and on a good note. It’s important to come out here and try to have a good run and stay out of the trouble,” he commented. “It’s one of the biggest races and it’s fun to come down here and kind of experience the whole week out here.”
