By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Ryan Blaney entered Sunday’s Pocono 400 as the defending race winner, and he also started on pole for the 160-lap race. And after keeping the lead off the start for 11 laps, the day went downhill fast for the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, as he fell outside the top three before making an early pit stop on lap 14.
While the day quickly fell under power to Kevin Harvick (leading 89 of 160 laps) Blaney just couldn’t keep up with the top contenders early.
“We fired off decent, I just faded,” Blaney said. “I was just holding them guys up.”
From there, Blaney never saw the race lead and felt a couple steps behind the lead trio of Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.
In fact, an eventual sixth-place finish would leave Blaney smiling after his car was barely top 10 through the mid-way point of the event.
“We weren’t a sixth-place car at the beginning of the day, probably 10th or 11th,” he said. “We got a lot better there toward the end of the day. We were struggling on two tires and no track position there at the end and that hurt us.”
Still, sixth place stands as Blaney’s seventh top-10 finish of 2018. And though some have come with fast cars from start to end, Sunday’s performance was based on improvement from his Team Penske crew. With lots to digest exiting Pocono, improvement is the keyword for Blaney.
“I’m proud of the effort today. We haven’t finished one here in a couple races so it was nice to finish one here.
“It makes you feel good. That’s something we’ve been getting better at this year; making changes through the race and getting our car better and better. That’s definitely something we’re proud of.”
Lap 140: Two right-side tires for @Blaney. #NASCAR #Pocono400 pic.twitter.com/5Ifzt7Rzn8
— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) June 3, 2018