German Quiroga gave it all that he had, but it’d be Ryan Blaney edging him out at the line by 0.049 seconds to score the victory in the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday afternoon.
It marks the first victory of the 2014 season for Blaney and the third victory of his career. It also marks the second straight win for Brad Keselowski Racing after Brad Keselowski won at Bristol Motor Speedway last Wednesday.
“That was a lot of fun racing with German,” Blaney commented post-race. “We raced really hard and really clean, and that’s how racing should be. It was so much fun racing with him. I felt in the back of my mind that we were going to be close on fuel and I kept watching my fuel gauge the last seven laps or so and it would bounce to red every now and again but luckily I held on to it and Chad did a good job calculating fuel mileage. We didn’t qualify really good, but great call and strategy as it paid off in the end. That was a lot of fun. We had a good truck here last year but unfortunately broke and weren’t able to really run up there. This year to be able to win is really cool. We only get to run one road course a year and it was so much fun. It’s a fun course to run and a great win.”
The caution flew with 14 laps to go for Alex Tagliani spinning. Blaney would get a good restart, but Quiroga would stay close right on his tailgate. Blaney would make a mistake in turn one, allowing Quiroga to close the gap even further. As the pair raced around the 11-turn course, Quiroga was able to make his move in turn eight to attempt to make the pass. Blaney would then pull the crossover, before out drag racing Quiroga to the line.
Quiroga’s second place finish marks his ninth top-10 finish of the year as he continues to search for his first career victory. At one point, fans were predicting a repeat of the last lap contact with Ty Dillon and Chase Elliott last year.
“You never know what could happen,” Quiroga commented. “I like to race guys hard and clean. I really enjoyed that battle. I didn’t want to wreck him.”
Erik Jones would out-duel Gray Gaulding in the final laps as the pair traded third back and forth multiple times while Quebec native Andrew Ranger rounded out the top-five.
“It was a good battle,” Jones commented post-race. “We fell off there at the end. I don’t know if I burned my stuff up there trying to run down German, or the pressures were just too low and didn’t come back up. It was a tough battle to hold him off there at the end. To be able to hold him off at the end is great for a good finish, and helps get us turned around after a rough deal past couple of weeks in the owner’s standings.”
Matt Crafton finished sixth, followed by Brennan Newberry, Johnny Sauter, Cole Custer and Timothy Peters. Sauter now leads Crafton by seven points
Pole sitter Alex Tagliani would finish 16th after spinning Cole Custer out with 19 laps to go, before going for a spin by his lonesome and stalling the truck with 14 laps to go.
