Ryan Blaney, who won the NASCAR Cup Series race last weekend at New Hampshire, will start from the rear for Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway after blowing a tire in practice Saturday afternoon. The team will go to a backup car.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED IN PRACTICE? “We blew a tire, so we’ll have to look at it and see why that was. I hate that we crashed a race car and stuff like that, but we’ll take a peek at what we need to do differently and hopefully come from the back tomorrow. I’m looking forward to getting the race going tomorrow.”
SOMETIMES YOU START PRACTICE ON LOW PRESSURE. DID THAT SEEM UNUSUAL AT ALL FROM THE START? “Not really. I wouldn’t say I really had any feel of something kind of off until right before it went, honestly. It kind of had that normal feeling to it until it blew. That’s kind of the hard thing about when you blow tires like that. They don’t feel way off and then they just kind of give out the next moment, so I didn’t have any kind of caution beforehand. It’s just unfortunate. I hate that we’ve got to get a backup out and do all that deal, but we’ll fight through it. Like I said, I’m just looking to getting out there tomorrow and see what we’ve got.”
— Ford Racing —