Ryan Blaney recalls how he 'almost took the 88 out' at Las Vegas
By Jared Turner
Sunday's Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a major success for Ryan Blaney and the entire No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team.
Blaney, a rookie Sprint Cup driver running his first full season for the fabled organization, finished sixth on a day when he was competitive throughout and recorded his best career finish at a non-restrictor-plate track.
One of the drivers Blaney beat was NASCAR's 13-time most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished eighth in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.
Afterward, Blaney admitted that Sunday's unusually gusty winds at the 1.5-mile Vegas track at one point almost caused him to run into Earnhardt -- which, had Earnhardt wrecked, undoubtedly wouldn't have been good for Blaney.
"It was really gusty," Blaney said of the high winds, which reached 40 mph at times. "If it was a steady wind, it wasn't so bad. You can get into a rhythm.I got blown into (Turn) 3 one time pretty hard and almost took the 88 out. That would have been terrible."
Joey Logano, sitting next to Blaney in his post-race news conference, chimed in.
"You would have been hated as much as me," said Logano, who has made his share of enemies in recent years. "Maybe more."
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Blaney, a 22-year-old and second-generation driver, credited his spotter and other spotters with helping drivers not get blown into each other.
"It was brutal," he said. "But our spotters, they did a great job of letting us know if it was picking up or what direction it was going to. They always do a great job with that.It was different today, dust and rain at times, definitely one I've never been a part of."
Ryan Blaney recalls how he 'almost took the 88 out' at Las Vegas
