FONTANA, CA- March 3, 2020 – Ryan Blaney was in contention for the third straight week, leading 54 laps — second only to eventual race winner Alex Bowman — and winning the second stage. But Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford was forced to pit road with a tire issue with three laps left in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway.
Blaney finished 19th, one lap off the pace.
Clint Bowyer started from the pole position and led the opening 11 laps, but a flat tire on his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford forced a caution flag on Lap 92. He finished 23rd.
In all, Ford finished with three Mustangs inside the top-10, paced by Brad Keselowski who used a late charge to take home a fifth place finish. He was joined by Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Aric Almirola (8th) and Kevin Harvick (9th).
Ross Chastain finished 17th in his second race filling in for the injured Ryan Newman in the Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford.
MENCS RACE TOP-10 FINISHERS
1st – Alex Bowman
2nd – Kyle Busch
3rd – Kurt Busch
4th – Chase Elliott
5th – Brad Keselowski
6th – Denny Hamlin
7th – Jimmie Johnson
8th – Aric Almirola
9th – Kevin Harvick
10th – Erik Jones
REMAINING FORD FINISHERS
12th – Joey Logano
13th – Matt DiBenedetto
16th – Chris Buescher
17th – Ross Chastain
18th – Cole Custer
19th – Ryan Blaney
22nd – Michael McDowell
23rd – Clint Bowyer
25th – John Hunter Nemechek
29th – Corey LaJoie
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 America’s Tire Ford Mustang – FINISHED 5th
“We had a good run today with the Discount Tire Ford. We ran fifth, which isn’t bad. There were some highlights. We were able to drive through the field there a couple times. The car had a lot of long run speed. We never had the speed the 88 had through the whole weekend but we fought really hard and scored a lot of points today to dig us out of a hole we had from early on in the season. There were a lot of positives.”
“I think we executed really well today. I probably could have done a little better on one of the early restarts, but other than that the team did really good.”
Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – FINISHED 8th
“I have to clean up some things and we have to clean up some things as a team. I thought we had a top-five car and we just kept giving away all of our track position. We have to do better, but we are building and we got a top-10 and we will take that and move on. I think we have a lot of potential. I think Bugga and all the guys did a great job with the car and I felt like we had a top-10 car going into today and we proved that. We ran in the top-10 most of the day but I feel like with track position and a few other things going a little better, a little smoother, we could have had a lot better result. Overall, it was still a decent day and we will take the points and move on.”
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – FINISHED 9th
“We just didn’t have a very good weekend. This place wasn’t very good for us last year either. I am just having a hard time getting the car to be balanced all the way through the corner. I think as you look at it, we didn’t have a ninth-place car either, we just had a great day on pit road. Those guys did a phenomenal job on pit road and that kept us in the game.”
Ryan Blaney, No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang – FINISHED 19th
YOU LED 54 LAPS AND HAD TO PIT LATE WHILE RUNNING SECOND, CAN YOU TAKE ANYTHING POSITIVE AWAY FROM TODAY?
“Yeah, we led a little bit and ran pretty good, we just corded a right rear at the end. We lost the lead there at the beginning of the third stage and kind of got swallowed up and the 88 got away and got gone. We needed to be in front of him. It is just the way it goes sometimes.”
*Courtesy of Ford Performance