By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Martin Truex Jr. may have had the race tight in his pocket, but Ryan Blaney was among the next-best guys throughout Sunday’s First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
Though not leading a lap, Blaney was a consistent contender in the top five, running as high as second to Truex’s unstoppable No. 19 across 500 laps.
With multiple late-race restarts to possibly steal a victory for his No. 12 Team Penske team (his second in just three weeks) he instead fell behind to finish fifth.
Scoring his 10th top-five finish of 2019, Blaney leaves Martinsville 15 points below the cutline, having entered the weekend -21.
“We had a lot of stage points today which was nice,” Blaney said. “Just got to keep ourselves in the hunt, that’s what you got to do.”
Finishing third in both stages, it was indeed a positive day for the No. 12. However, it wasn’t without some head-scratching — some of which coming from the aggressive driving from his Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski. Two incidents that sit quite differently for Blaney.
“[Keselowski] dove in there,” he said of the late contact. “He gave me the spot back actually, that was nice of him.
“The No. 22 [Logano] just hit me five times as soon as he got to me. He tried to pass me for five laps and then he started running me over. I didn’t appreciate that, but all that stuff comes around.”
The other mystery came in the form of Truex’s blue Toyota that led 464 of 500 laps. Blaney was beyond impressed.
“It was amazing how good he could do everything,” he said of Truex. “He could roll the middle great, get off the corner good and he never slowed down. There was one long run in the middle of the race where we ran him down. I think the second stage, we started running him down. Then the caution came out and it kind of reset.
“They were really great, incredible. When we were running second before that 50-to-go caution, I couldn’t see him. He was that far ahead. Pretty spectacular on their end.”
With two races left to decide the Championship 4 in Homestead-Miami Speedway, Blaney is confident to continue the upward projection next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
“Our car was really good there in the first race. We were leading when we blew up,” he said. “Confident. I’m looking forward to going there.”