Polesitter Ryan Blaney Lets Slip Frustrations With Bristol’s New Concrete Touch-Up

The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney secured his 10th career pole at the Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday. Blaney raced a lap of 15.356 seconds at a speed of 124.954 MPH in the final round of the qualifying race. However, despite this feat, he seems disappointed with Bristol’s switch to a concrete track.

The revamped concrete surface intended to enhance grip and performance seemingly had unprecedented consequences. Owing to this change in the track, Blaney’s No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse struggled to find traction. This led to a less-than-ideal race experience. In a post-race interview, Blaney spoke about how the concrete touch-up of the Bristol track got him frustrated.

The grip seemed to loosen quickly, said Ryan Blaney

Ryan Blaney sat for an interview after the Bristol qualifying race. The video was uploaded on Instagram by SiriusXM NASCAR. In the interview, Ryan Blaney opened up about how the concrete configuration of the Bristol Raceway turned out to be a frustrating experience for him.

Blaney said “Very interesting day honestly, like I was in Round 1, in the first group to go practice today. The track had a pretty good grip right away. And it seemed to lose it really quickly. Like you made a 30-lap run today, lost a lot of grips last time I came in, changed. And it is like I lost almost three course of second, you know everyone kind of did their 2nd, 3rd runs, just really lost tons of grips. Same for Group B and qualifying. You see a lot of guys just kind of slipping out of their grip. You know just trying hard and getting lose and you didn’t really know how much grip the track was gonna have.”

Before going to the final qualifying race, Blaney asked for updates from his spotter Tim Fedewa about the grip conditions. Fedewa who used to be Kevin Harvick’s spotter for the past ten seasons, has some good experience. “So I was asking Fedewa my spotter that hey what are those guys on? The guys in front of me, to see how much it had slowed down. So that I can know what to expect. They slowed down 3/10ths, okay I gotta expect 3/10th less grips,” added Blaney.

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Apart from all the track complexities, Ryan Blaney had a great outing today at Bristol. He acquired his first pole in over a year and is enthralled about it. Needless to say, he practiced really hard for it. “But it was kinda fun, very interesting day, pretty cool to end up getting the pole after vast practice. And I won a pole on a while. So, nice to get that check box,” he continued.

Track change at Bristol Motor Speedway caught the drivers off-guard

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The track underwent a significant transformation due to the application of resin on the bottom lane. The intention was to introduce an additional racing groove. Historically, the top lane had been dominant at Bristol races. However, some drivers were not pleased with how the resin affected the track, resulting in intense moments and unpredictable handling.

Justin Haley and Chris Buescher were visibly struggling due to a lack of control caused by the wearing off of the resin. Front Row Motorsports‘ Todd Gilliland on the other hand, described his driving experience as “nerve-wracking.” John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Cindric noticed some changes in the tracks as well.

With so much anticipation and excitement building up, it will be fascinating to see how the race at Bristol Motor Speedway unfolds.

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