BLANEY WINS AT TEXAS!

THIRD CONSECUTIVE XFINITY WIN FOR TEAM PENSKE

FORT WORTH, TX, April 9, 2018 – Ryan Blaney took the No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang to Victory Lane on Saturday, winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series My Bariatric Solutions 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Blaney won for the first time at Texas, making it three in a row for “The Captain” (Roger Penske) and Team Penske, following teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano’s victories at ISM Raceway (Phoenix) and Auto Club Speedway (Fontana).

“It was just a really fast race car,” Blaney remarked in Victory Lane. “That is three in a row for this team with three different drivers. That says a lot about Brian’s (Wilson) work that he has done and the whole team to bring fast race cars to the tracks lately. Hopefully we can keep this up. It was definitely a fun day.”

“Congratulations to Ryan, Roger, Ford Performance, and to everyone at Team Penske,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “Sweeping the poles on Friday and Saturday was a great start to the weekend in Texas, marking our 100th Xfinity pole. Ryan drove an impressive race on Saturday to win the third consecutive Xfinity race for Team Penske. The entire Ford Performance program has started off strong this year and Roush Yates (Engines) is honored to be a part of this winning organization.”

After two rain delay qualifying sessions between NXS and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS), it was the Ford teams that swept the pole positions in both series. Blaney secured the NXS pole, while Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch took the pole position in the MENCS.

Starting the NXS race from the pole, the No. 22 dominated Stage 1 with the power of the Ford FR9 Carb engine to lead all 45 laps. Blaney went on to lead a race day high 132 laps (198 miles) and win by an impressive margin of 2.327 seconds over No. 20 Christopher Bell. This was Blaney’s seventh NXS career win.

Three Ford Mustangs finished in the top-10, following Blaney was the No. 00 Cole Custer in fourth and Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric No.12 in ninth. In addition, Custer qualified for the Dash 4 Cash program ($100,000 event) at Bristol Motor Speedway (April 14th).

“It is pretty amazing,” commented Custer. “To be able to compete, it is a really awesome thing that Xfinity does for the series. You get to race hard and race for a lot of money. We are going to get after it. It will be fun to go to Bristol. We have been good there in the past and I am looking forward to going there and try to win $100,000 for our team. That would be pretty awesome.”

In a hard fought MENCS race Sunday, five Ford’s finished in the top-10; Kevin Harvick P2 (Stage 1 winner), Blaney P5, Logano P6, Busch P7 and Clint Bowyer P9.
The Ford Performance teams will build on this momentum heading into Bristol this weekend.

*Pictures courtesy of NASCAR Media

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