Blaney falls short, but Richmond progress evident

“That next-to-last run, we struggled pretty bad,” Blaney said. “We tried a little bit different stuff with air pressure and track bar and just didn’t really work out for us. Didn’t really fire off very good and we lost some ground. We stayed OK for a little longer, but it still fell off pretty bad. We were kind of chasing it a little bit tonight, just trying to find some front and rear grip. Not overall a bad night for us, though. I think if we could’ve restarted one row better, I think we could’ve gotten second, but no one had anything for the 54 (Busch).”

Crew chief Jeremy Bullins has helmed the No. 22 Ford to four Nationwide Series victories this year, including Blaney’s win at Bristol. Bullins said he accepted the blame for the next-to-last adjustment, which prompted Blaney’s most vocal complaints of the night over the team radio, but continued to be impressed by his young driver’s growth.

“I think he grew upon the shorter tracks in these kind of races, where he can be aggressive with the car at the end of the race like that and he does a good job with it,” said Bullins, a 19-time winner as a Nationwide crew chief. “But I think he’s learning to be good everywhere, so I don’t see any weaknesses in his future.”

Though he’s shown to be a quick study, Blaney continues to learn in his role as a part-time Nationwide competitor and a full-time driver in his sophomore season in the truck series. Friday night, there was more learning to be done in-race as he tried to gain insights from following Sprint Cup star Kevin Harvick and emulating his unorthodox groove.

Blaney said he tried the unusual line on a few laps — squaring off or “diamond-ing” the early part of the corner and carrying high-side momentum on corner exit — but said his car’s handling was too loose to make the groove stick. Either way, the result was more satisfying than the ninth-place effort he registered here in April.

“I like this place. We’ve had pretty decent runs here,” said Blaney, who made his NASCAR national series debut here in 2012 with an impressive seventh-place finish. “It’s a lot better than what we had here in the spring race, I’ll tell you that. That’s a big step forward for us, so judging how far off we were in the spring race, I’m not very happy but I’m pleased with this.”

Blaney has driven in nine of the Nationwide Series’ 25 races this season, and he’s scheduled to be back behind the wheel of the No. 22 in next weekend’s event at Chicagoland Speedway. He led 47 of 200 laps in the series’ last visit to the Illinois track in mid-July before settling for a ninth-place run, an effort that gives Bullins hope for another streak-starter heading into the season’s home stretch.

“We had a really good run going there last time, but we got some body damage and that kind of hurt our car,” Bullins said, “but up until that point we’d led some laps and we’re real excited about going back there.”

MORE: