Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney will begin the Round of 8 of the playoffs in a backup car from the rear of the field at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Blaney spun in Saturday’s practice session when a tire went flat on his Team Penske Ford Mustang. It occurred on his second lap of the session.
Goodyear determined it was a puncture to the tire that caused the issue. Blaney spun in Turn 1 and hit the wall with the driver’s side of his car. Saying it was about the worst place to cut a tire, he didn’t feel he had any warning of what was coming.
“I went through [Turns] 1 and 2 the first lap and it’s rough through there like it normally is, so I didn’t really feel anything odd or out of the ordinary,” Blaney said. “I figured [in] a couple laps the pressures come up, and you’ll be fine, but I didn’t feel anything down the front the lap that it blew into [Turn] 1, so it kind of caught me by surprise.
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“It’s just one of those things that stinks and catches you off guard. There was no indication, and it was in the worst part of the corner.”
The team spent little time looking over the damaged primary car before beginning to prepare the backup car for the South Point 400. Blaney will not qualify because of the incident and will have to start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s race.
“It’ll be a big challenge for multiple reasons, but I feel confident,” he said. “Hopefully, we can make our way through there. We’ve got all race. We might not be able to get stage points in the first one, but hopefully, by the second one maybe, we’ll get some stage points and then hopefully the speed is good enough to where we can run up toward the front.
“Yeah, it sets us back a little bit, but this group is ready to go, and they know the new task. It’s going to be a tall one tomorrow, but I’ve got faith we can make the most of it.”
Blaney has never won at Las Vegas. He finished sixth in the Las Vegas playoff race last year and was third in the spring race.