Ryan Blaney Takes Fourth in the 35th Annual Rattler 250

Ryan scored a strong top-five finish at The Rattler.

Ryan Blaney had his eye on the prize in the CRA Rattler 250 in Opp, Alabama, and that didn’t just apply to his top-five finish.  The end goal for Blaney in CRA this season is to claim the Southern Six-Pack champion title again and to claim the inaugural title for the CRA National Super Late Model Championship.  Two races into the new season he is already in a great position to achieve those goals.

The teenage driver from North Carolina came into the CRA Rattler 250 weekend feeling good about his opportunities, after coming off a top-10 finish at SpeedFest at Lanier National Speedway in Georgia in January. With no experience at South Alabama Speedway prior to this weekend, the team had to tackle a steep learning curve but managed to overcome it with flying colors. By the final practice session they had logged the second fastest time.

The team unfortunately lost one of their qualifying laps due to a minor tech infraction for a quarter panel being too high. This was a huge setback and after their only qualifying lap did not go as well as hoped for, Blaney ended up qualifying 18th. Even with the disappointment from qualifying, Blaney would not be deterred.

"I think we improved the Heavy Duty Industrial Services/Seal Wrap Chevrolet a whole bunch from where we started,” said Blaney.  “If we could have started in the top seven or so I think we could have saved our stuff a little bit more than we did, but overall we had a pretty good weekend.” 

Blaney fell behind after not taking tires at the competition caution at lap 100, but he fought his way towards the front of the pack after choosing to take tires 25 laps later.  Things started to get interesting for Blaney in the last 20 laps of the race, as Chase Elliott, who had been sent to the tail for causing a caution, fought his way up to fifth, but was able to go no further, as Blaney was able to hold him off until the checkered flag.

“I think it took a lot of luck to not get in any wrecks and just being vigilant,” added Blaney.  “I didn’t think we had a great car as we were fighting a tight condition all race and kind of hanging on.  We held off Chase there at the end and it was pretty fun, so overall not too bad of a weekend.  We’ll come back next year and hopefully do a little better.”

Next up for Blaney is the PASS South race at Anderson Motor Speedway in Anderson, South Carolina. He will return to CRA events later in the year to continue his pursuit of another CRA Six-Pack title, as well as a CRA National Championship.

In addition to the primary sponsors Heavy Duty Industrial Services and Seal Wrap, Blaney utilized support from Welch and Wilson Motorsports, NOS, Valvoline and Hank Thomas Performance.