[autotag]Ryan Blaney[/autotag] took the white flag at Homestead-Miami Speedway and thought he had done it again. In 2023, Blaney won at Martinsville Speedway, locking himself into the Championship 4 en route to his first NASCAR Cup Series title. However, a bad decision in Turn 3 and a great move by Tyler Reddick ended Blaney’s hopes of another Championship 4 berth, at least for the moment.
Following the event, Blaney was asked about the end of the race at Homestead, as he now goes into the Round of 8 finale at Martinsville with a 38-point deficit to the playoff cut-line.
“It’s obvious: disappointment,” Blaney said. “Yeah, I had a great shot to win. Didn’t have a very good last lap. Man, I thought I got into three hard. The No. 45 just blitzed off in there. It stuck for [Tyler Reddick], which is pretty impressive. Yeah, I hate to give one away there like that. I don’t know if we gave it away. I mean, we got the lead back after losing on the restart. Yeah, just last bit didn’t really play out for us. Definitely stinks.”
https://twitter.com/NASCARonNBC/status/1850655893584531517
“Appreciate everybody on the No. 12 team for bringing a really fast race car. Had a great shot to go to Phoenix. Still got one more chance. Look forward to that. Appreciate Menards, Ford Performance, Richmond, Advance Auto Parts, Body Armor, Wabash, everybody. I’ll be thinking through it all night, what I should have done different probably. That’s just the way it goes. Overall really proud of the effort. Hopefully we can bring it to them next week.”
Blaney has won at Martinsville before, so he is not eliminated; however, this is a massive gut punch to the No. 12 team and Team Penske. When he took the white flag, it looked as if Blaney was easily going to make the Championship 4, but the worst-case scenario occurred. Now, it comes down to Martinsville in what is a likely must-win situation.
[lawrence-related id=18970,18932]