3/21/2024
Five Flags Speedway
The Bleichs Take Over Crown Stocks, as Ryan Looks to Topple Bubba Pollard at the Big Weekend
The Bleichs Take Over Crown Stocks, as Ryan Looks to Topple Bubba Pollard at the Big Weekend
By Chuck Corder
5flagsspeedway.com reporter
Debbie Bleich has never raced cars before.
Well, as she puts it: “Not legally. Just a stupid teen doing stupid things.”
But once she saw husband Ryan Bleich win a track championship at Five Flags Speedway last year and her three kids climb behind go-karts in recent years, Debbie Bleich wasn’t about to be left out on all the family fun.
She will join her defending-track-champion hubby in the Story and Bleich Crown Stocks division later this season once her car is finished being built.
“They’re fun,” Debbie Bleich said of the Crown Stocks, which she has already tested. “I’m finding there is a fine line between being outta control and in control, what I’m comfortable with and what the car can do.”
Before that, though, Ryan Bleich begins his Crown Stocks title defense Saturday afternoon as part of the Big Weekend, which kicks off the 2024 season at the famed half-mile asphalt oval. The Crown Stocks share the Saturday stage with the ARCA Menards Series East cars. They will drop the green flag at 4:30 p.m. with the ARCA Pensacola 150 slated for 7:30. Weekend festivities begin Friday night, as three other local divisions—the Faith Chapel Outlaws, the Dock on Pensacola Beach Sportsmen and the Lloyd’s Glass Pure Stocks—ring in the new season. Racing begins at 8 p.m.
The ASA STARS will close the weekend Sunday afternoon at 3 when they return for the Pensacola 200. An autograph session will precede both Saturday and Sunday’s races.
For full schedule details along with individual day and three-day admission packages, please call the track office at 850.944.8400 or visit www.5flagsspeedway.com.
The 34-year-old Ryan Bleich will compete in both the Sportsmen and Crown Stocks divisions this season. He won’t run a full Crown Stocks schedule, but he will be in Saturday's night field after the late addition of short-track legend Bubba Pollard.
“I’m coming for Bubba Pollard on Saturday night. You can count on that,” Ryan Bleich joked.
He will focus most of his attention this season on the Sportsmen car he has tinkered with for the last two years.
“I want to get that dialed in and have a competitive season with it,” Ryan Bleich said. “The Crown Vic. is not on the backburner, but I’m not points racing this year. I wanna see my wife do really well in it.”
Debbie Bleich has tested twice at Five Flags but knows nothing will be able to replicate the in-race dramatics she will face later this year.
While her children—daughter Lily, 12, and sons Ryan, 7, and Rhys, 5—have been extremely supportive, some family members are concerned for her competition.
“They thought it was absolutely cool,” she said of her kids. “ ‘Mama, I saw you racing. You did so good.’ My dad called me out. He said he has seen me drive on the open road, and nobody stands a chance.”
The decision to race came after a discussion between the married couple that has been together for nine years. Ryan asked Debbie if she ever considered driving and, much like their engagement, she said yes
.
“Around Christmas, I bought her a fire suit and other safety stuff as gifts,” Ryan Bleich said. “There is an ongoing joke among the entire crew that she’s going to be faster than me and beat me this season.”
Debbie Bleich was quick to point out: “I’m close behind him in lap times. I’m learning very fast. I’ll get better the more I practice.”
Article Credit: Chuck Corder
Submitted By: Dave Pavlock
