With the pressure to qualify their way into the Daytona 500 squarely on their shoulders, rookies Ryan Blaney and his crew chief Jeremy Bullins responded like veterans in Thursday’s Budweiser Duel at Daytona International Speedway and raced their way to a starting spot in the Daytona 500.
Blaney lined up the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion in ninth place for the start of the second 150-mile Duel, needing to finish at least 15th place or better to be assured of a starting spot in NASCAR’s most prestigious race.
From the drop of the green flag to the checkered, Blaney kept the Motorcraft Fusion in the lead pack and in (or near) a transfer spot. More times than not he was in or close to the top five. When the checkered flag fell, he was a solid sixth, giving him the 12th-place starting spot for Sunday’s 57th annual Daytona 500.
Blaney said that despite the speed and potential of his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion, he took the conservative route in the Duel, knowing that a single mistake could cause him and his fellow team members spectators on Sunday.
“Tonight was all about transferring,” Blaney said. “There were a couple opportunities I really, really wanted to drive hard and go for a win – and we had opportunities to do that – but the main point was to transfer tonight and that’s what we did.”
“Everyone did a great job, and it’s just cool to be with the Wood Brothers and say we’re racing Sunday. It was a really smooth race for us,” he said. “Everything went our way.”
“We were really smooth on pit road the one time we came down, and that’s all we can really ask for is to try to control the things we control [like] no mistakes on pit road.”
“Everything else is kind of up in the air.”
Team co-owner Eddie Wood said he was impressed with Blaney’s coolness under the pressure of having to race his way into his first Daytona 500.
“He took what the track and the situation would give him,” Wood said. “He drove like someone who has been doing this for 10 years.”
Bullins also was pleased with the performance of his driver, which makes his job between now and Sunday morning much easier. When Blaney rolled to a stop after the Duel, the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion didn’t have so much as a scratch on it.
“Ryan did a really good job,” Bullins said. “We’ll just clean her up, shine her up and get ready for Sunday.”
Bullins and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew will do the usual preparation for a Daytona 500 – swapping the engine and other key components as allowed by NASCAR for the 500 – and they’ll give the car a shake-down run either Friday or Saturday during practice.
“We’ll watch the weather forecast and be sure we get in a little practice,” he said.
Blaney said he’s looking forward to putting what he learned Thursday night to use on Sunday afternoon in the Daytona 500.
“There were a couple opportunities I thought we could have gone for it, and we had to pull the reins back and make sure that we got in [the 500],” he said. “You definitely put that in the memory bank for Sunday, knowing what you can do and what you can’t do.”
“I definitely think we have more in the tank.”
The Daytona 500 is set to get the green flag just after 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday with TV coverage on FOX.
