Ryan Blaney Battles Concord Speedway (NC) to Finish Sixth in North-South Shootout

2009 PASS South Rookie of the Year Wins Heat Race and Grabs Top-10 Finish

Ryan Blaney and his #10 Super Late Model team decided to try their hand at the Inaugural CRA Super Series North-South Shootout 125 this past weekend.  After struggling with handling towards the end of the race, Blaney held on to bring home a 10th-place finish.

“This place is tricky,” said Blaney.  “You either love it or you hate it, and luckily, I ended up loving it.

“We were looking for a little bit more out of our qualifying run, but since we didn’t qualify right up front, we got a chance to run a heat race to kind of base what the next night was going to hold for us, so I wouldn’t say it was too bad.”

After winning his heat race on Friday night and posting the second fastest time in final practice on Saturday, Blaney was confident they would have a strong car for the race. 

“In the heat race, I was just trying to work on making it through the dog-leg,” explained Blaney.  “That’s what we ended up struggled with the next night, so it was definitely an issue.  We thought we would have had it really good for Saturday night, but it was just a little too free in the dog-leg and we couldn’t get through there nearly as quick as everyone else.”

Although the car went away from him at the end of the race, Blaney and his team began the race hopeful that a good strategy would get them to victory lane.

“If we were good we weren’t going to take tires,” said Blaney.  “But it was pretty hard to pass, so we just couldn’t get track position.  So, at about lap 80 we came in and took tires and we came back out about around 12th.  When we went back green, I drove right up to sixth and I thought we were going to just keep coming, but that’s when it just stalled out and got way too loose again.  All in all, it was a pretty good race though.  I had some fun with [Chase] Elliott there at the end, racing with him, so overall it was a pretty good night.”

Blaney will be returning to the seat of his World Formula Quarter Midget on Saturday, November 14th, at the NCQMA facility in Salisbury, North Carolina.