{"id":14176,"date":"2017-11-19T18:41:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T00:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=14176"},"modified":"2017-11-19T18:41:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T00:41:36","slug":"blaney-gives-wood-brothers-best-season-finish-since-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/19\/blaney-gives-wood-brothers-best-season-finish-since-1995\/","title":{"rendered":"Blaney gives Wood Brothers best season finish since 1995"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Courtesy of Tim Keenan<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">HOMESTEAD, Fla., <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u2013&nbsp;<\/span>Despite a disappointing 29<sup>th<\/sup>-place finish in the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway today, Ryan Blaney \u2013 driving his last race for the Motorcraft\/Quick Lane Racing team \u2013 handed Wood Brothers Racing its best season since 1995. Blaney and the Wood Brothers end up ninth in the overall season points standings.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14178\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"14178\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/19\/blaney-gives-wood-brothers-best-season-finish-since-1995\/2017-nascar-monster-cup-series-homestead\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/17HMS1nk07166.jpg?fit=1837%2C1061&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1837,1061\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;10&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Nigel Kinrade&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON D4S&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series\\rFord EcoBoost 400\\rHomestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, FL USA\\rSunday 19 November 2017\\rKevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Jimmy John&#039;s Ford Fusion, Trevor Bayne, Roush Fenway Racing, Roush Performance Ford Fusion and Ryan Blaney, Wood Brothers Racing, Motorcraft\/Quick Lane Tire \\u0026amp; Auto Center Ford Fusion\\rWorld Copyright: Nigel Kinrade\\rNKP&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1511126116&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;\\u00a9 2017 Nigel Kinrade\\rNKP\\rwww.NigelKinrade.com&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;300&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;200&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0015625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;2017 NASCAR Monster Cup Series, Homestead&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"2017 NASCAR Monster Cup Series, Homestead\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series&lt;br \/&gt;\nFord EcoBoost 400&lt;br \/&gt;\nHomestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, FL USA&lt;br \/&gt;\nSunday 19 November 2017&lt;br \/&gt;\nKevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Jimmy John&amp;#8217;s Ford Fusion, Trevor Bayne, Roush Fenway Racing, Roush Performance Ford Fusion and Ryan Blaney, Wood Brothers Racing, Motorcraft\/Quick Lane Tire &amp;amp; Auto Center Ford Fusion&lt;br \/&gt;\nWorld Copyright: Nigel Kinrade&lt;br \/&gt;\nNKP&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/17HMS1nk07166.jpg?fit=640%2C369&amp;ssl=1\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14178\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14178\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/17HMS1nk07166.jpg?resize=300%2C173\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/17HMS1nk07166.jpg?resize=300%2C173&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/17HMS1nk07166.jpg?resize=768%2C444&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/17HMS1nk07166.jpg?resize=1024%2C591&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/17HMS1nk07166.jpg?w=1837&amp;ssl=1 1837w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-14178\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<br \/>Ford EcoBoost 400<br \/>Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, FL USA<br \/>Sunday 19 November 2017<br \/>Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Jimmy John&#8217;s Ford Fusion, Trevor Bayne, Roush Fenway Racing, Roush Performance Ford Fusion and Ryan Blaney, Wood Brothers Racing, Motorcraft\/Quick Lane Tire &amp; Auto Center Ford Fusion<br \/>World Copyright: Nigel Kinrade<br \/>NKP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Blaney\u2019s otherwise stellar 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season included a win, two pole positions, 14 top-10 finishes and a nine-week NASCAR Playoff run.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been a fun year for sure,\u201d Blaney said after the race. \u201cIt&#8217;s a shame it ended not on a high note but it&#8217;s been fun to run every week at the race track and be competitive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cTo win a race, that was pretty great,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt&#8217;s been a fun year overall and it\u2019s kind of bittersweet to see it come to an end. Still, I&#8217;m happy for what&#8217;s next to come.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Blaney transitions to a third Team Penske Cup entry in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A review of Blaney\u2019s 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, only his second as a full-time driver, includes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Two poles (at Kansas in May and last week at Phoenix)<\/li>\n<li>One win (at Pocono Raceway in June)<\/li>\n<li>Four top-five finishes<\/li>\n<li>14 top-10 finishes<\/li>\n<li>301 laps led<\/li>\n<li>The Round of Eight in his first NASCAR postseason<\/li>\n<li>Amassed 226 stage points (ninth among drivers) and won four stages<\/li>\n<li>Finished ninth overall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An early race miscommunication and an ill-handling race car contributed to today\u2019s result at Homestead-Miami. That, however, didn\u2019t keep Blaney from reflecting fondly on his three years driving for NASCAR\u2019s oldest and most-historic team.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI love driving for the Wood Brothers,\u201d he said. \u201cIt&#8217;s been a fun three years and I&#8217;ll always remember it. They&#8217;re very humble people and a humble family. All they want to do is race. They&#8217;re racers and that&#8217;s how I grew up.&nbsp;I think that&#8217;s what made our relationship special.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The next race for the Wood Brothers\u2019 iconic No. 21 will be the 2018 Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 18 at Daytona International Speedway with new driver Paul Menard behind the wheel. Menard finished Sunday\u2019s race in 16<sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&nbsp;place.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy of Tim Keenan HOMESTEAD, Fla., \u2013&nbsp;Despite a disappointing 29th-place finish in the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway today, Ryan Blaney \u2013 driving his last race for the Motorcraft\/Quick Lane Racing team \u2013 handed Wood Brothers Racing its best season since 1995. Blaney and the Wood Brothers end up ninth in the overall season [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[527,16,435],"class_list":["post-14176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-homestead-miami-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-ryan-blaney"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/17HMS1nk07166.jpg?fit=1837%2C1061&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3GE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14179,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14176\/revisions\/14179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}