Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Preparing A Fast Fusion For Daytona

June 28, 2017

As Eddie Wood heads to Daytona International Speedway for Saturday’s Coke Zero 400, the co-owner of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion driven by Ryan Blaney figures there’s no better time to be campaigning a Ford Fusion.

Ford drivers have won seven of the 16 Monster Energy Cup races so far this season including two of the past three, one of them being Blaney’s win at Pocono three weeks ago and the other Kevin Harvick’s triumph at Sonoma on Sunday. Continue reading Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Preparing A Fast Fusion For Daytona →

Blaney Shows Budding Road-Course Skills With Ninth-Place Finish At Sonoma

June 25, 2017

Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, having already proven this season that they are capable of great finishes on superspeedways and intermediate tracks, added road courses to that list with a strong run at Sonoma Raceway.

In his second Cup start at the California track, Blaney started seventh, finished ninth and picked up 11 stage points along the way via finishes of fourth in the first 25-lap stage and seventh in the second. Continue reading Blaney Shows Budding Road-Course Skills With Ninth-Place Finish At Sonoma →

Blaney Qualifies Seventh At Sonoma

June 24, 2017

For the 11th time in 16 races this season, Ryan Blaney and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team have qualified seventh or better.

The latest came on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway where Blaney qualified seventh in just his third Cup start on a road course. Last year he qualified 26th at Sonoma and 19th at Watkins Glen, the other road course on the Cup circuit. Continue reading Blaney Qualifies Seventh At Sonoma →

Road-Course Racing A Big Part Of Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team History

June 22, 2017

When Eddie and Len Wood head west this weekend for the races at Sonoma Raceway, they’ll travel by jet airplane.

But on that flight their minds likely will wander back to the days when they drove the team hauler to road course races at another California track, Riverside International Raceway.

Back in the day, Eddie and Len Wood, now the co-owners of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion driven by Ryan Blaney, made that long trek in the company of some older members of the team, like their father Glen Wood, uncle Leonard Wood or a crewmember like Kenny Martin. Continue reading Road-Course Racing A Big Part Of Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team History →

Blaney, Omnicraft Ford To Start Sixth At Michigan
June 16, 2017

It took a second attempt in Round Two of qualifying at Michigan International Speedway, but Ryan Blaney was able to advance to the final round and put the No. 21 Omnicraft Ford Fusion in sixth place for the start of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400.

Blaney, fresh off a victory at Pocono Raceway, was ninth fastest in the opening practice at Michigan with a best lap of 199.545 miles per hour.

He was ninth fastest in the opening round of qualifying, which allowed him to advance to the second of three qualifying rounds. Continue reading Blaney, Omnicraft Ford To Start Sixth At Michigan →

Blaney Sporting Omnicraft Colors At Michigan

June 16, 2017

With their 99th victory secured by a dramatic finish of last Sunday’s Pocono 400, the Wood Brothers will kick off their quest for No. 100 in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at one of their favorite tracks, Michigan International Speedway.

It’s a place that has seen the Woods win 11 times in the past, including the inaugural Motor State 500 back on June 15, 1969. And it’s the home track for their long-time supporter Ford Motor Company.

This weekend, the familiar Motorcraft/Quick Lane colors will give way to the orange logos of Omnicraft, Ford Motor Company’s new brand of quality replacement parts for non-Ford and non-Lincoln vehicles. The Omnicraft brand, which made its debut in January, is Ford’s first new parts brand in 50 years and will give its dealers and the Quick Lane Tire and Auto Centers access to quality parts for any vehicle brought in for service. Continue reading Blaney Sporting Omnicraft Colors At Michigan →

Blaney Scores Popular First Cup Victory At Pocono

June 11, 2017

Ryan Blaney’s victory in Sunday’s 400-miler at Pocono Raceway will likely go down in NASCAR history as one for the ages, and for all ages.

It was the first Cup victory for the 23-year-old driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion and the 99th for his Wood Brothers team.

The combination of Blaney, one of the sport’s future superstars, and the Wood Brothers, the sport’s oldest continuously competing team, produced a victory that was popular with the sport’s older fans and with its younger, newer ones. Continue reading Blaney Scores Popular First Cup Victory At Pocono →

Blaney Qualifies Fourth At Pocono

June 9, 2017

Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team led the way for Ford Motor Company in Cup qualifying at Pocono Raceway, earning the fourth starting position for Sunday’s Pocono 400.

It was the sixth time in 14 races this season that Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team have qualified in the top five. Continue reading Blaney Qualifies Fourth At Pocono →

Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Ready For Unpredictable Pocono

June 7, 2017

Pocono Raceway, site of this weekend’s Pocono 400, is one of the more unique tracks on the NASCAR circuit. Eddie Wood, co-owner of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion driven by Ryan Blaney, likes the challenges it presents. Continue reading Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Ready For Unpredictable Pocono →

Drive-Train Issues Drop Blaney To 32nd At Dover

June 4, 2017

A second drive-train failure in as many weeks relegated Ryan Blaney and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team to a 32nd-place finish in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway.

As he has in most races this season, Blaney got off to a fast start at Dover and finished both of the first two 120-lap stages among the top 10. He was seventh in the first stage, earning four points, and eighth in the second, earning another three.

But on a restart at the beginning of the third and final stage of the race, the No. 21 Fusion slowed, and Blaney drove to the garage where the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team attempted to fix the problem of the car not pulling properly. Continue reading Drive-Train Issues Drop Blaney To 32nd At Dover →

Blaney Qualifies 15th At Dover

June 2, 2017

Ryan Blaney needed two tries to advance out of the first round of qualifying on Friday at Dover International Speedway, and those extra laps on his tires put him at a disadvantage in Round Two.

Still, he wound up earning the 15th starting position for Sunday’s AAA 500 Drive for Autism. It was the 10th time in 13 races this season that Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team earned a top-15 starting spot.

It also bettered the team’s qualifying results from 2016 at Dover, where Blaney was 18th in the spring and 20th in the fall.
Continue reading Blaney Qualifies 15th At Dover →

Dover’s Been Good For The Wood Brothers

June 01, 2017

Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are headed to Dover International Speedway where the team has had a history of preparing fast cars, both back in the day and in the not-too-distant past.

The records show that the Wood Brothers have run 75 Cup races at Dover with seven victories, 17 top-five and 30 top-10 finishes along with four poles and 2,854 laps led. Continue reading Dover’s Been Good For The Wood Brothers →

Quick Axle Swap Enables Blaney To Finish 24th At Charlotte

May 29, 2017

A good measure of a race team is how it responds to adversity. Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team lived up their sponsor’s name, “Quick Lane Tire and Auto Center” by giving a good account of themselves in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. They rebounded from a broken axle and finished 24th, which dropped them just one position to 12th in the championship standing.

Blaney started seventh and finished the first 100-lap Stage in seventh place, earning four points. He was running fifth late in Stage Two when an axle broke during a pit stop. Continue reading Quick Axle Swap Enables Blaney To Finish 24th At Charlotte →

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

Wood Brothers Choose Kyle Petty’s 1987 Ford Thunderbird For Darlington Throwback Paint Scheme

May 22, 2017

The throwback paint scheme that Ryan Blaney’s No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion will sport in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway gives team owners Eddie and Len Wood a chance to recognize some of the most fun times of their decades in NASCAR.

The No. 21 Ford Fusion will carry a red, white and blue paint scheme reminiscent of the 1987 season when Kyle Petty was their driver and the team’s Ford Thunderbird carried the colors of Citgo and 7-Eleven.

“That was a really special time for Len and me,” Eddie Wood recalled. Continue reading Wood Brothers Choose Kyle Petty’s 1987 Ford Thunderbird For Darlington Throwback Paint Scheme →

Spirited Run In The Monster Energy Open Earns Blaney A Spot Among NASCAR’s All Stars

May 21, 2017

It took a determined drive in Stage Two of the preliminary Monster Energy Open at Charlotte Motor Speedway to do it, but by winning that segment Ryan Blaney put his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team back in NASCAR’s All-Star race for the first time since 2012.

Blaney qualified second fastest for the Open, the last chance race for drivers not already assured of a berth in the All-Star race. He finished second in the first 20-lap segment then bolted into the lead on the start of the second 20-lapper and held the top spot through the finish to earn a starting spot in the All-Star race.

Once in the main event, Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team were forced to try different strategies to overcome their starting position at the back of the pack. Continue reading Spirited Run In The Monster Energy Open Earns Blaney A Spot Among NASCAR’s All Stars →

21 Team Reflects on 21 Years, All-Star Race

May 16, 2017

Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team head into the Monster Energy All-Star weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway needing a stage win in the preliminary Monster Energy Open to earn a berth in the main event.

But as Michael Waltrip’s victory in the 1996 All-Star race proves, it is possible for an Open driver, one who hasn’t won a points-paying Cup race in the past two seasons, to win the main event.

Waltrip, driving the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Ford, finished fifth in the Winston Open back in ’96, but went on to win the main event, then known as the Winston, becoming the first Open driver to win it all. Continue reading 21 Team Reflects on 21 Years, All-Star Race →

Blaney, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Finish Fourth After Mistake-Free Weekend At Kansas

May 14, 2017

When the Wood Brothers and their backers at Ford Motor Company decided in 2009 to take the Motorcraft/Quick Lane back to a part-time schedule and regroup, the long-term goal was to build the No. 21 team back to an outfit that was capable of turning in a performance like the team delivered in Saturday’s GoBowling.com 400 at Kansas Speedway.

A little more than a year after the team returned to full-time competition, driver Ryan Blaney, crew chief Jeremy Bullins and the entire Motorcraft/Quick Lane team had a mistake-free weekend that saw Blaney win his first pole in NASCAR’s elite series, then compete for the win all the way until the final laps. Continue reading Blaney, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Finish Fourth After Mistake-Free Weekend At Kansas →

Blaney, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion Win The Pole At Kansas

May 12, 2017

Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team took another big step in their building process by winning the pole for Saturday’s GoBowling.com 400 at Kansas Speedway.

It was Blaney’s first career Cup pole, and it came in his 65th race. It was the 117th pole for his Wood Brothers team, which has now won poles with 12 drivers, including team founder Glen Wood, who won the team’s first pole at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 12, 1958, and went on to win the team’s next five poles and 14 altogether. The most recent pole winner before Blaney was Ricky Rudd, who earned the pole at Talladega Superspeedway on April 25, 2004. Continue reading Blaney, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion Win The Pole At Kansas →