Tag: Nashville Superspeedway

Gibbs lands atop Nashville Cup Series practice

Ty Gibbs was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. Gibbs paced the field at 159.287mph (30.059s). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was the only one who cracked the 159mph range. Ryan Blaney was second fastest …

Ty Gibbs was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.

Gibbs paced the field at 159.287mph (30.059s). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was the only one who cracked the 159mph range.

Ryan Blaney was second fastest (158.428mph), Bubba Wallace, third (158.25mph), Ross Chastain, fourth (158.187mph) and Todd Gilliland, fifth (157.921mph).

Chastain is the defending race winner of the Ally 400.

Kyle Larson was sixth fastest (157.9mph) followed by Joey Logano (157.858mph), Austin Cindric (157.77mph), Michael McDowell (157.744mph) and Tyler Reddick (157.666mph).

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Tennessee native Josh Berry was 13th fastest (157.552mph). Denny Hamlin was 15th (157.407mph).

Corey Heim was 17th fastest (157.329mph), making his third career start in the Cup Series in a third entry for 23XI Racing.

William Byron buried in 19th (157.04mph), while Martin Truex Jr. was 20th (157.004mph). Christopher Bell, the most recent winner, was 21st fastest (156.886mph).

Chase Elliott was just 22nd fastest (156.778mph), Kyle Busch, 29th (156.353mph) and Chase Briscoe, 37th (155.475mph).

There were no incidents in practice.

Blaney was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average. He paced ahead of Chastain, Wallace, Gibbs, and Allmendinger.

There are 38 drivers entered in Sunday’s race.

Bell heading toward Cup Series playoffs stronger than ever

Finally, the tide seems to have turned for Christopher Bell. Bell has multiple victories in the regular season for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Not only is he tied for most in the series with Kyle Larson, his Joe Gibbs Racing …

Finally, the tide seems to have turned for Christopher Bell.

Bell has multiple victories in the regular season for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Not only is he tied for most in the series with Kyle Larson, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin and William Byron, but he also has the second-most playoff points behind Larson.

In other words, Bell looks much better positioned for a run in the postseason than in previous years. Although he made the Championship 4 the last two seasons, Bell and the No. 20 DeWalt team had to do it the hard way in must-win situations.

“Oh my gosh, man, we’ve been trying to work toward this for the last three years,” Bell said Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. “It feels very, very rewarding to have playoff points in the bank right now, and we’ve [still got] a great opportunity to get more. This is what everybody wants in the regular season — to get out of here with a bunch of points.

“It feels much different from what we’ve had in the past.”

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The early part of the season made it look like Larson would separate himself from the pack. Larson not only racked up victories (three) but also stage wins (eight) to add to his playoff point total, and his pace was far ahead of the competition.

Over the last month, though, Bell came on strong. He’s led the third-most laps in the series (451) and won two of the last five races. He’s also picked up five more stage wins in that stretch and finished no worse than ninth.

The numbers now fall like this: Larson leads the series with 23 playoff points to Bell’s 22. Larson leads the series with eight stage wins to Bell’s seven.

Bell has also gone from 15th in the championship standings before the Coca-Cola 600, which he won, to sixth after his victory last weekend in New Hampshire — another important factor because NASCAR awards drivers who finish the regular season inside the top 10 in the championship standings with additional playoff points.

There are eight races left in the regular season, including Sunday at Nashville (3:30 p.m. ET, USA). Bell has an average finish of eighth in three starts at Nashville in the Cup Series.

For reference, Bell will start the postseason with more playoff points than he’s had in his previous three appearances, having started the 2023 postseason with 14 playoff points, 11 going into 2022 and just five to start the 2021 postseason.

Eckes trounces Truck field with flag-to-flag Nashville dominance

Christian Eckes absolutely dominated Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series’ Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, the 23-year old leading all 150 laps – the first time a driver has led every race lap in 12 years. Eckes, driver of …

Christian Eckes absolutely dominated Friday night’s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series’ Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, the 23-year old leading all 150 laps – the first time a driver has led every race lap in 12 years.

Eckes, driver of the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet raced forward from a third place starting position to take the lead from pole winner Stewart Friesen by Turn 2 of the opening lap at the 1.333-mile oval and essentially never looked back. He led by more than 3s in the closing laps and ultimately crossed the finish line 2.028s ahead of his teammate Daniel Dye – the runner-up showing a career best effort for the 20-year-old Floridian.

It is the third win of the season for Eckes and extends his championship lead to 40 points over TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim, who finished third after passing Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth on the final lap. McAnally-Hilgermann Racing’s Tyler Ankrum was fifth.

“Can’t say enough about these guys,’’ said Eckes, who has three wins on the season and now eight in his seven seasons in the series. It’s the second time this season (also at Martinsville, Va.) that he has swept both stage wins and claimed the winner’s trophy.

“We were really motivated to get this truck out there. Nice job for the day,’’ added Eckes who says he can’t ever remember leading every lap in any race he’s competed in.

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The win also earned Eckes a $50,000 bonus check for claiming the final leg of the series’ Triple Truck Challenge – Nick Sanchez and Heim are the other winners in the incentive program.

“I saw the No. 11 (Heim) has four of them [wins] so got a little upset walking in [to Nashville Superspeedway], so now another one to go catch another one,’’ Eckes said.

Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Matt Mills, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia rounded out the top 10 in the finishing order. Rhodes’ rally was especially impressive considering how he started.

While Eckes spent the day up front – mastering every restart on an evening that saw seven caution flags for 42 laps – there was plenty of action behind him as the caution count would indicate.

On the other hand, Sanchez, who started his No. 2 Rev Racing Chevy from the rear of the 36-car field after hitting the wall in qualifying, rallied to finish 13th and sits third in the championship 89 points behind Eckes.

NASCAR Cup Series star and current FOX Sports NASCAR broadcaster Clint Bowyer finished 17th after his No. 7 Spire truck suffered damage when the field stacked up on the Stage 1 restart. In his typically colorful manner, Bowyer was frank about his night – the first NASCAR national series race he’s competed in since retiring from full-time competition in 2020.

 

“We fought loose-in the whole time from the word go, but I know from a lot of years of experience that’s hard to overcome,’’ said Bowyer, a 10-time NASCAR Cup Series winner and the 2012 championship runner-up.

“I don’t know what happened on the [Stage 1] restart, they all checked up in front of me and I crashed,’’ Bowyer said, adding, “I will be back. I promise you there’s no way I’m ending on that.”

Three races remain to set the 10-driver Playoff field. Currently Tanner Gray, who finished 14th Friday night, sits in the 10th place position, 14 points ahead of Dye.

The CRAFTSMAN Truck Series returns to competition for the CRC Brakleen 175 at Pocono Raceway on July 12 (5:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Kyle Busch is the defending race winner.

RESULTS

Big Machine Music City Grand Prix partners with Arrow McLaren

IndyCar’s season-finale Big Machine Music City Grand Prix has joined Arrow McLaren as an official team partner for the remainder of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season. The partnership goes into effect immediately, and Big Machine branding will be …

IndyCar’s season-finale Big Machine Music City Grand Prix has joined Arrow McLaren as an official team partner for the remainder of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season.

The partnership goes into effect immediately, and Big Machine branding will be present on the Arrow McLaren cars for the first time in tomorrow’s Indianapolis 500. Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will have representation on the cars of Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi throughout the season, and will be the primary sponsor on the No. 6 Chevrolet for the Milwaukee Mile doubleheader on Aug. 30-Sept. 1.

“Everything that Arrow McLaren and McLaren in general try and do is to be the most entertaining motorsports team in the world,” said McLaren CEO Zak Brown. “It’s a blend of sport and entertainment, and to bring together these two audiences, I think, is very exciting.

“Scott [Borchetta, Big Machine Music CEO] has a, a great vision for IndyCar. What he’s done for Nashville — and done for IndyCar in Nashville and really globally — is awesome. So to come together, both being promoters and very focused on the fan, at the end of the day, I think we’ll put together a good collective show and cap it off with hopefully competing for a championship in Nashville.”

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Borchetta took over operations of the Music City GP following the race’s move from downtown Nashville to Nashville Superspeedway, located approximately 35 miles from the city. Borchetta said that he still aims to incorporate a downtown festival element to the event, even if the race itself is not there.

“To kick off downtown on Friday, we will have the pit stop competition,” he said. “We will have our fourth annual Freedom Friday, we’re going to shut down Broadway and it’s going to be our biggest lineup yet. It’s going to be live and free on Freedom Friday. We’ll have the talent announcement coming pretty quick, but it’s going to be billed as the biggest album release party in the world.

“Then we’re going to have stages out at the superspeedway on both days. So we’ll have a full lineup with music. I’m proud a few of the things that we’ve already come up with with our [marketing] team. I’ll give you an example: for our billboards around town, especially keeping the in touch with Nashville, on the corner of First Avenue and Korean Veterans Boulevard, we have a wraparound of around the building. It says ‘At 175 miles an hour, you’re only 11.2 minutes away.’

“So wherever you are and see the billboards all around town… if you’re in Brentwood, ‘At 201 miles an hour, you’re only 9.1 minutes away.’ So we want everybody psychologically to realize it’s not that far away, and then to come back downtown on Saturday after qualifying and practice. It’s going to be rocking there as well. So we’re going to keep it feeling like Nashville all the way to the checkered flag.”

Borchetta also confirmed that the guitar trophy — a feature of IndyCar’s last visit to the venue in the 2000s — will return this year.

Nashville win ‘huge’ for Trackhouse – Marks

A dominant performance at Nashville Superspeedway en route to his first NASCAR Cup Series win in over a year had Justin Marks singing the praises of his driver Ross Chastain. “I think Ross showed today that he’s really in rare air in this series, at …

A dominant performance at Nashville Superspeedway en route to his first NASCAR Cup Series win in over a year had Justin Marks singing the praises of his driver Ross Chastain.

“I think Ross showed today that he’s really in rare air in this series, at this level,” Marks said Sunday night. “He’s learning, he’s maturing. It’s an incredible moment for us.”

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Nashville is the birthplace of Trackhouse Racing, which helped make the victory sweeter. But for Chastain, it helped quiet the criticism he’s faced in recent months about his driving style, doing so in a race where he had the best car

Chastain started from the pole and led a race-high 99 of 300 laps. In the first stage, Chastain finished second to Tyler Reddick, and he finished third in the second stage to Denny Hamlin. Throughout the race, Chastain’s average running position was 10.6.

Given his history with Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., Chastain admitted there was satisfaction in having to pass those two drivers for the victory. A victory that was his first on a true oval after wins at the Circuit of the Americas road course and Talladega Superspeedway.

But for Marks, the win was about capitalizing on an opportunity. Chastain was the subject of criticism at Darlington Raceway for crashing with Kyle Larson while battling for the lead late in the going. It appeared to be a turning point as Marks publicly said there were things to clean up and discuss.

“There was not really a moment, a sit-down moment, with Ross,” said Marks. “It wasn’t like, ‘Do this,’ or ‘Do that.’ I have been going through this experience as a Cup owner alongside Ross as a Cup driver for the first time. He’s made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes. We’re learning together.

“I think after Darlington, there was such an opportunity to have such a moment for our team that I think we just sat down and go, ‘How do we make sure that we don’t miss these opportunities?’ When we’ve got opportunities to make statements and win races, with the speed we have in our race cars, how good everybody is, let’s make sure we’re making decisions to put ourselves in a position to capitalize and have nights like we did tonight.”

Chastain has had to learn to compete at the Cup Series level. In the process, his aggressive style ruffled feathers. Entering the weekend, Chastain admitted he’s still evolving as a driver.

“You look at a race like tonight, he just did everything right, everything perfectly,” said Marks. “He had a super-fast car. The conditions changed from day to night. They ran three wide for three laps, which was incredible. He did everything right.

“I think it’s a huge win for us because I think it’s a big moment for him and this team personally because it says that we have an opportunity to win so many races and compete and win for championships in this series. Such a bright future ahead of us. We’re all, like, super motivated and inspired for the future.”

With the victory, Chastain clinched a return trip to the playoffs, where he came within one spot of winning the championship last season.

Truex ‘just needed a little bit’ to overhaul Chastain in Nashville

Martin Truex Jr. was pushing hard in the final run at Nashville Superspeedway trying to catch Ross Chastain, but there were too many wrong circumstances for it to matter. A second-place finish is what Truex left the Ally 400 with, feeling he needed …

Martin Truex Jr. was pushing hard in the final run at Nashville Superspeedway trying to catch Ross Chastain, but there were too many wrong circumstances for it to matter.

A second-place finish is what Truex left the Ally 400 with, feeling he needed to be the leader in the run to the finish to have a shot at winning. But once Truex had lost the top spot midway through the race, it changed the complexion of his race.

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“Once we lost (the lead), I probably made a bad move taking the bottom on a restart,” Truex said. “Just too loose in the long runs. I could hang with whoever was leading, just could never get off the corner good enough to get a move. Just lacking side bite. Overall, just burning the rear tires off too much.

By jumping the leaders on the final round of pit stops, Truex was able to move from third to second place. But Chastain was able to manage his gap and air block, even though lapped traffic. And even though Truex could see Chastain was battling his car, too, the No. 1 Chevrolet still drove away.

“Just really loose at the end of the race there as well,” Truex said. “Just needed a little bit. Got lots of speed. Just could never get the balance where it needed to be. Without having clean air, it was difficult, so overall, good night for our Bass Pro Tracker Toyota Camry. Guys are doing a great job. Just that close again.

“If we keep doing this, we’ll be in good shape.”

Truex led 50 laps Sunday night. He also picked up 16 stage points, and remains the championship point leader.

“If we extended it, it’s always good,” Truex said. “A lot of points at the end of the regular season to get that (championship), a lot of bonus points. We’ll take all we can/

“I was disappointed not to get the stage win there. We had it wrapped up until the tire got away on the 45 (Tyler Reddick). That’s how these things play out. We weren’t quite good enough to take the lead. That was our issue. Burning the tires off too much, getting too loose in the long runs.”

Jones back on form after testing couple of months

Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway was the first race in a while that Erik Jones felt his No. 43 team was in the ballpark, and he turned it into a top-10 finish. Jones finished eighth in the Ally 400, his best finish on a non-superspeedway type …

Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway was the first race in a while that Erik Jones felt his No. 43 team was in the ballpark, and he turned it into a top-10 finish.

Jones finished eighth in the Ally 400, his best finish on a non-superspeedway type track this season. It was also the first top-10 finish for Jones and his Legacy Motor Club team in two months.

It was “for sure” a needed run for the group.

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“When you’re struggling, you get kind of in a rut, and it seems like you’re never going to get out of it,” said Jones. “But we kept working, and I knew we were going to get our stuff better, it was just a matter of getting the pieces together.

“We’ve been trying some stuff the last month; felt like Gateway was going to be a good day for us and obviously, had the incident on pit road, and today I think we put everything together. Proud of that. Obviously, a huge step forward and hopefully more for the rest of the season.”

Jones started the race 23rd, which he feared would happen with an early qualifying draw. But knowing he had a top-10 car kept Jones focused on the climb toward the front.

“Just a good car; good car off the trailer on Friday, fast in practice,” Jones said of what went right at Nashville. “We didn’t qualify good, but I felt like we could race good and we did that. Just keep bringing good cars, that’s what it’s all about.

“I know we’re going to do that more. The second half of the year always seems better for me. I don’t know – the tracks or whatever. But hopefully, we can keep bringing good cars.”

It’s going to be an uphill climb for Jones and Legacy Motor Club. The organization has admittedly taken a step backward from last season, and that fight now includes an upcoming transition period to a new manufacturer next season, changing the dynamics when it comes to available resources.

“It’s tough, obviously, with the penalty we got, we’re pretty far back in points, so a lot out the window on the year,” Jones said, referring to the loss of 60 points for a greenhouse modification after St. Louis.

“But we want to run well. There’s nothing else we can do but try to go out and do this. A top 10 is really good for us right now with where we’re at, and it’s what we’ve got to do. Hopefully, we can continue that the rest of the year, build off this year, and keep moving forward.”

For Jones, the focus-forward attitude and determination to succeed despite adversity will, if nothing else, show how strong the organization is.

“The last two months have for sure done that, kind of tested everybody,” Jones said. “But I knew everybody was going to stick together and work at this deal, try to get it better. Got to keep pushing forward. Got to keep trying to get it better.

“We’re a bit on an island right here, but we’ve still got stuff to learn to try to apply for next year.”

NASCAR to evaluate Blaney’s non-SAFER hit at Nashville

NASCAR officials will evaluate Ryan Blaney’s crash at Nashville Superspeedway after his Team Penske Ford Mustang hit a wall that didn’t have a SAFER barrier. “NASCAR safety engineers work closely with safety experts on the implementation of barriers …

NASCAR officials will evaluate Ryan Blaney’s crash at Nashville Superspeedway after his Team Penske Ford Mustang hit a wall that didn’t have a SAFER barrier.

“NASCAR safety engineers work closely with safety experts on the implementation of barriers around the track,” a statement read. “As we do following every race weekend, we will evaluate all available data and make any necessary improvements.”

Blaney crashed on lap 147 of the Ally 400 off an accordion effect on a restart. It started in the second row with Brad Keselowski, who got hit from behind when the field launched.

Once Keselowski was out of shape, the field took evasive action to the left and right of the RFK Racing driver. Blaney, who was in the ninth row, was hit from behind by Kyle Busch and sent spinning.

“The guys behind me had so much power that they ran me over,” Keselowski said. “I got a great launch, and there they go. I just got run over. Got hit so hard it literally knocked it out of gear.

“They were just that much faster. It’s frustrating, but we got work to do.”

Blaney hit the inside wall nose first. Although he admitted the impact left him needing to catch his breath, he climbed from the car on his own and was cleared from the infield care center.

“I don’t really know what happened,” Blaney said. “Someone checked up on the restart, I guess, and I kind of checked up and got hit from behind. I didn’t know if they were wrecking, and just couldn’t get it straightened out when I got out of the grass. I thought I was going to come back around, and that I’d be OK, but it just never got back right, and I don’t know why there’s no safer barrier there.

“That’s pretty ridiculous, honestly — hardest hit I’ve ever had in my life, so happy to be all right. It sucks for the Pennzoil Ford Mustang. Stinks to go home early.”

Chastain secures playoff berth with clean drive in Nashville

Ross Chastain capped off a “perfect” race weekend, hitting all the right notes in the Music City to earn the winner’s guitar trophy in Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway – his first NASCAR Cup Series race victory of the season, a day after …

Ross Chastain capped off a “perfect” race weekend, hitting all the right notes in the Music City to earn the winner’s guitar trophy in Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway – his first NASCAR Cup Series race victory of the season, a day after claiming his first career pole position.

But before hoisting his new guitar, the 30-year old Chastain had a watermelon to smash – his trademark victory celebration – a nod to his family’s multi-generation watermelon farm in rural Alva, Florida. And the sold-out Nashville crowd – home to his race team owner Justin Marks — roared with enthusiasm for the long smoke-filled victory burnout he did in front of the grandstands to his enthusiastic melon drop.

“This is incredible,” a grinning Chastain said. “This is why every little kid out there, anyone in the world, when you get criticized and you’re going to if you’re a competitor, they will try to tear you down and you’ll start believing it and you can’t do that. Go to your people. Trust in the process. Read your books and trust in the Big Man’s plan upstairs. And just keep getting up and going to work on it.

“A lot of self-reflection through all this, but I had a group that believed in me and they didn’t let me get down,” he said of his challenges in 2023.

Chastain certainly proved his resilience and his faith in the process. He led early Sunday and then led late – thanks to incredibly fast pit stops from his Trackhouse Racing team helping position him for the race lead on the final round of stops of the night.

It’s the first race win of 2023 for Chastain, who led the championship standings for seven weeks early in the year, and the first win of the year and first pole position ever for Trackhouse Racing.

Ultimately Chastain had to hold off Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin by 0.789s for the win – leading a race best 99 of the 300 laps, including the final 34.

Lapped traffic was a factor for Chastain to overcome all night. He lost his early race lead to Tyler Reddick after Noah Gragson raced Chastain hard trying not to be lapped. There is a history between Gragson and Chastain, who had a physical confrontation at Kansas Speedway in early May. Reddick went on to win Stage 1 after Chastain was unable to clear Gragson easily, but Reddick – who started the race alongside Chastain on the front row — spun out on pit road on a caution shortly thereafter and ultimately was not a factor for the win.

In the closing laps – with Truex hot on his bumper – Chastain had to navigate traffic again, and again cars held him up in an effort not to get lapped.

Fortunately for the No. 1, some of that traffic made things difficult for Truex as well and the “Melon Man” was able to pull away some in the final 20 laps.

It was a clean race – only two short extra caution flags beyond the two scheduled stage breaks. Reddick took his third stage win of the season in Stage 1 and Hamlin notched his fourth in Stage 2.

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“I just think we had a third place car,” Hamlin said. “I thought the No. 19 (Truex) was a little better and obviously the No. 1 came on really strong there at the end.

“Just didn’t have quite a fast enough car to go for the win,” he added.

With his runner-up showing, Truex maintained the NASCAR Cup Series championship lead, now up by 18-points on both Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and Chastain.

“Just needed to get the lead. Once we lost it, just too loose on the long runs, just could never get off the corner good to make a move,” Truex said, adding, “Just needed a little bit. Had a lot of speed. … Overall a good night.”

The 1.33-mile Nashville oval has been a good place for Chastain. He finished runner-up in 2021 and was fifth last year. And having won his first career pole position on Saturday, he went into Sunday’s race feeling optimistic.

“I trust in my people, my family back home, the agriculture industry and all the people Justin Marks has in place,” Chastain said, adding, “It’s absolutely incredible the fight that we have.”

Chase Elliott, the 2022 Nashville winner, finished fourth, followed by his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Byron. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones, Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch and Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger – who won the Nashville Xfinity Series race on Saturday – rounded out the top 10.

The NASCAR Cup Series next heads to downtown Chicago for the highly-anticipated Grant Park 200 Chicago Street Race next Sunday (5:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RESULTS

‘Hardest hit I’ve ever had in my life’ – Blaney crashes early at Nashville

Ryan Blaney made impact with an inside wall at Nashville Superspeedway that had no SAFER barrier and left the Team Penske driver saying it was the “hardest hit” he’s had. Blaney crashed on lap 147 of Sunday night’s race as the field came to a …

Ryan Blaney made impact with an inside wall at Nashville Superspeedway that had no SAFER barrier and left the Team Penske driver saying it was the “hardest hit” he’s had.

Blaney crashed on lap 147 of Sunday night’s race as the field came to a restart. A stack-up started in the second row with Brad Keselowski, who restarted in the outside lane. The field tried to take evasive action by scattering to the left and right of Keselowski.

Coming to the restart, Blaney was lined up on the inside of the ninth row. He was tagged from behind by Kyle Busch, which sent Blaney’s Ford spinning to the left.

During the spin, the Penske Ford went through the frontstretch grass and across the pavement of the exit of pit road. It then went nose-first into the inside wall.

“I feel better now,” Blaney said after being cleared from the infield care center. “It’s a shame to end our night early. I thought we finally got decent there the start of the second stage and I don’t really know what happened. Someone checked up on the restart, I guess, and I kind of checked up and got hit from behind.

“I didn’t know if they were wrecking and just couldn’t get it straightened out when I got out of the grass. I thought I was going to come back around and I’d be OK, but it just never got back right, and I don’t know why there’s no SAFER barrier there. It’s pretty ridiculous, honestly — hardest hit I’ve ever had in my life, so happy to be all right. It sucks for the Pennzoil Ford Mustang. Stinks to go home early.”

After the impact, Blaney said he needed time to catch his breath. He climbed from the car under his own power.

The lack of a SAFER barrier was a sticking point for him, being puzzled about how there wasn’t one in that spot, but expects it won’t be an issue going forward after his crash.

“I honestly thought I was going to be fine,” Blaney said. “I really thought I was going to be OK once I got past the grass back onto the asphalt. I thought I could kind of swing back around when I got off the brake.

“It just never did; it was at the weird angle. I thought I could get back going straight until the last second, and it just never came back.”