THE RACE
Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway (1.5-mile speedway, Kansas City, Kan.)
No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang driven by Ryan Blaney
Saturday, October 4, 3:30 PM ET
THE Q & A
The No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang
· FIVE TO GO: As the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series season winds to a close, Ryan Blaney and the No. 22 Discount Tire team will look to continue to try and hold onto the Owners’ Championship points lead in an effort to win their second-straight title as the series moves to Kansas Speedway. Blaney, along with Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Alex Tagliani and Michael McDowell, have combined for four wins, 23 top-five, 28 top-10s and eight poles this season behind the wheel of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang. The team holds a 32-point advantage over the No. 54 from Joe Gibbs Racing with just five races to go.
· A ONE-TIME WONDER: This weekend will just be Blaney’s second-time ever visiting Kansas Speedway behind the wheel of a Nationwide Series car. Blaney made his one and only start at Kansas back in 2012 driving for Team Penske, when he started 27th and finished 11th while piloting in relief of Keselowski, who was focusing on his Sprint Cup Series championship hopes. Blaney has made two Camping World Truck Series starts at Kansas with a best finish of third.
· THREE MORE CHANCES: As of now, Blaney will have three more shots to earn his second Nationwide Series victory of the year before the season runs out. Blaney is currently scheduled to run this weekend at Kansas in the No. 22 and will make two starts in the No. 12 for Team Penske, coming at Charlotte and Texas. Blaney is also scheduled to run the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega in a couple of weeks for Team Penske in a third entry.
· A CAREER YEAR IN STATS: Despite having three more scheduled events in 2014, Blaney has already had a career year in terms of his Nationwide Series performance. Through 10 races, Blaney’s one win, six top-five and nine top-10s and 136 laps led are all career-bests for the 20-year-old driver. His laps led also ranks him 10th of all Nationwide Series drivers this season, many of which have raced in all 28 races thus far this season.
RYAN BLANEY, NO. 22 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD
THE SEASON IS WINDING DOWN. THROUGH YOUR 10 STARTS, HOW WOULD YOU CLASSIFY YOUR SEASON?
“I think it has been strong. There are some races that I think we could have and should have finished better than we did, but that is just circumstances. Every team out there can say the same thing, right? We all think if we finished eighth, there is something we could have done better to finish fifth. That’s just a part of looking back at racing. But I feel like we’ve been strong, and myself and Jeremy Bullins have worked well together. That is all you can ask for really. We just need to go out now and perform the rest of the year and be a part of another Championship effort. That’s important to Roger, to the guys on the team, to Discount Tire and Hertz and to the guys in the shop who build these cars. Over these next five races, that is the team’s focus.”
JEREMY BULLINS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 22 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THE SEASON WITH FIVE RACES REMAINING?
“It’s always fun to look back, but first thing first is that we need to focus on the next five races. We have five races we can win and a championship to lock up. That is our focus this week starting with Kansas. You can’t look too far ahead, and you can’t really take the time to look back, because you won’t focus on what is right in front of you, which is this weekend’s race. But it has been a fun year and we’ve had a lot of good runs. We were hoping for a few more wins, but we have a shot to do that a few more times before the year is out. We will just keep moving forward and focusing on the goals we’ve laid out in front of us.”
