Four points separated Ryan Blaney with the PASS South

point lead going into the series’ penultimate event,

October 29th’s Over the Mountain 150 at Hickory Motor

Speedway.  Hickory had been good to Blaney over the

years with several victories at the historic 3/8th’s-mile

North Carolina oval, so there were high hopes for

coming closer to the PASS South championship with a

strong run in the 150-lap race.

Blaney had that good run going early on.  He drove all

the way through the field after having to start deep in

the pack due to a qualifying tire mishap that forced him

to qualify through the last-chance race.  Even though he

had to come from 21st at the start, Blaney worked the

traffic masterfully even with an ill-handling car. 

Once he got to second-place with an eye on the leader,

Blaney reported to his crew that his #10 car had turned

ugly.  A broken axle was the culprit.  While he was able

to finish the race in 13th position, his title rival Jay

Fogleman had equal issues during the race, setting up a

championship duel in the final race of the season on

Thanksgiving weekend at Concord (NC).

“I started in the back of the field, but was slowly working our way up,” said Blaney.  “The car was really, really loose.  I didn’t think it’d be that way.  I thought it’d get really tight in the night time.  I think around lap 125, we got up to second and all of the sudden it just wouldn’t go.  It would only spin the right-rear tire.  We came in to the pits and found out the left-rear axle was busted, so it was only driving the right-rear tire.  That’s why we were so loose.  By the time we got it fixed, we went five or so laps down.  When we got back out there, we were running away from the leader.

“If we can just keep parts on this car, we could win the championship.  Jay even had bad luck tonight, but we couldn’t capitalize on it.  If we just keep our equipment together, we’d have a good shot.  That’s what we’ll have to work on for Concord.”

Blaney unofficially trails Fogleman by just six points going into the final PASS South race on Saturday, November 26th at Concord Speedway (NC).

“We’ve always been good at Concord in the past, so we’ll go see how it shakes out and hope for the best.”

Before finishing the PASS South race, Blaney and his DB Racing team will be competing in the CRA Super Series’ North-South Shootout event at Caraway Speedway (NC) on Saturday, November 5th.

Title Hunt Still On for Blaney Despite Issues at Hickory

Mechanical Problems Keep #10 From Victory Lane, but Title Still in Sights

October 31, 2011

Ryan has a shot at the PASS South title next month at Concord.