Ryan Blaney continues hot streak in Chicago
CHICAGO — Ryan Blaney continued his strong summer Sunday in Chicago, muscling his No. 12 Ford to a top-10 finish in the Grant Park 165.
Like at Nashville Superspeedway, Blaney was out of the mix for most of Sunday. He qualified 17th but had to start 31st due to unapproved adjustments.
Blaney moved up to 27th on lap two with wet weather tires as drivers on slicks lacked confidence in the track surface. At the end of lap six, as the track dried up, Blaney dropped to 32nd – but the No. 12 team stuck to their guns and stayed out on the wet-weather tires. The track dried even more, which put Blaney a lap down in 33rd as a caution fell on lap 18. That caution ultimately ended the stage.
Blaney took the wavearound as rain began to fall. On the subsequent lap 25 restart, he moved from 35th to 31st.
After a caution and a red flag that gained him four spots, Blaney moved from 27th to 22nd in the four laps before the next caution on lap 35.
Then, the next run wasn’t as kind to Blaney. He fell out of the top-25.
With a few laps to go in stage two, Blaney put on slick tires for the finish. On lap 48, after the break for stage two, Blaney restarted 24th. He moved up to 18th in the three-lap run that ensued.
With time ticking down and the track drying, Blaney restarted 18th on lap 53, what would become five laps to go. A lap later, he was 14th. Then, he was 10th a lap later — Martin Truex Jr., Carson Hocevar and Christopher Bell all wrecked and drivers on wet-weather tires faded in front of him.
When the white flag waved, William Byron clawed to 10th but Blaney got it back when the checkered flag flew.
“It’s hard to assess it. It was a crazy race from the start. There were a lot of split strategies getting going on a mix of dry and wet [tires]. And then ended kind of on split strategies. We put dries on and ended up 10th. I kind of gave away a few spots at the end missing the corner. Overall, a good finish from where it started today. Pretty wild race – I’d like to run here one time where it’s dry the whole time for the fans’ sake and our sake,” Blaney said.
The 10th-place finish is Blaney’s fourth top-10 finish in the last five races. It could’ve been five straight top-10s, or even six, if not for unfortunate breaks at Gateway and Loudon. The No. 12 team is on it at this point in the season.
Before his hot streak began, Blaney was 12th in points, 129 points out of the lead. He was also nursing a 47-point gap to the cutline with five top-10 finishes, a 17.5 average finish and 143 laps led in the first 15 races.
In contrast, Blaney is now seventh in the points, 84 points out of the lead. That’s all thanks to the last five races when he’s scored four top-10s, a 9.8 average finish and 228 laps led.
Not to mention, a win to wipe away all playoff worries. That also bagged him five playoff points to go with the two earned already from stage wins.
Blaney will look to collect more playoff points at Pocono Raceway where he has fond memories of picking up his first NASCAR Cup Series win in June 2017.
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