Strong Run at Charlotte Earns Blaney His Sixth Start of Seventh Or Better In Past Seven Races

May 26, 2017

Ryan Blaney and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team showed their qualifying progress once again by earning the seventh starting spot for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Blaney advanced to the third and final round of knock-out qualifying Thursday night and secured his sixth start of seventh or better in the past seven races. He now has eight top-seven starts in the 12 qualifying sessions so far this year, including a seventh-place start at Martinsville Speedway where rain washed out qualifying and the starting line-up was set by points.

At Charlotte, Blaney was eighth fastest in the opening practice session with a best lap at 191.884 miles per hour.

In qualifying, he and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team continued their recent trend of improving as the session progressed. He was eighth fastest in the opening round with a lap at 190.342 mph, then picked up to 191.496 mph in the second round to record the sixth-best speed.

Then in the final round he once again increased his speed, this time to 191.734 mph, which placed him seventh in the line-up for Sunday’s race.

Crew chief Jeremy Bullins said he, Blaney and the rest of the Wood Brothers team were pleased with their performance.

“We have had speed in qualifying at Charlotte and not capitalized on that in the final round,” Bullins said. “Today was a big step, and we made good adjustments and Ryan got faster every round.

It puts us in a good spot going into Sunday’s race, and we want to move forward from there.”

The Coca-Cola 600 is set to get the green flag just after 6 p.m. on Sunday with TV coverage on FOX.