By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Ryan Blaney continued his road course success in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Sunday when he drove his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to third place at Sonoma Raceway.
It was the first road course race following his latest victory at the Charlotte Roval last September.
Running top five throughout the 90-lap Toyota/Save Mart 350, Blaney avoided mistakes to earn his fifth top-five finish of 2019 and his first since Bristol in April.
“I thought we had pretty good speed all weekend,” Blaney said. “We had top-five speed all weekend. Not winning speed. We kind of hung around all day. We were able to hang in there and stay out of trouble and able to come home with a decent day and a racecar that was intact, which is good.”
With only one top 10 in his previous three Sonoma starts, Blaney knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park despite a previous road course win.
“You come into every weekend expecting to run well, no matter if it is your best track or worst track,” he said. “I don’t really go into any weekend expecting to run a certain way. You just try to do your best. You just do the best you can during practice to get your car where it needs to be in the race.”
Though finishing third, Blaney was far from winning contention. The top two of Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch again dominated the afternoon, leaving Blaney 33 seconds behind. Only a restart would have opened the door, however, a caution-free race (outside of stage breaks) gave him no opportunity.
“It would have given us a shot,” he said of a caution. “I had no shot if there wasn’t a yellow. They were really good on long runs. You just give yourself a hope of restarting close to them and trying to make a move. We almost got the lead one time on a restart. I was hoping to get that shot again but it never came.”