Ryan Blaney expresses frustration over tire wear at Bristol, Ross Chastain

Ryan Blaney expresses frustration over the tire wear at Bristol Motor Speedway and Ross Chastain. Find out what Blaney had to say!

[autotag]Ryan Blaney[/autotag] appeared to have the best car following practice and qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway. However, Blaney never really had the car to beat after getting passed by Josh Berry at the start of the race. The extreme tire wear didn’t fit with his car at Bristol, and he ended up coming home with a 16th-place finish.

Following the event, Blaney spoke to Frontstretch about Bristol’s tire wear and race. The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion didn’t have a good day, and comments about the event showed it.

“I didn’t have fun,” Blaney said. “What’s fun about riding around, grouping around there. You can’t run 50 laps unless you blow a tire, and you’ve got guys blowing stuff, creeping around the racetrack. I can’t believe there wasn’t an accident.”

“You know what it reminded me of, the first half of the race? It reminded me of Daytona fuel saving…literally, we were two-by-two, creeping around there at quarter-throttle, saving your tires, and you just don’t know whether you wanted to go or not. They say they brought the same tire, but it’s complete B.S.”

Then, Frontstretch asked Blaney about his run-in with Ross Chastain. Blaney wasn’t having it after a tough day.

“I’m tired of you asking me [Ross Chastain] questions. No thanks.”

Blaney didn’t have a great day at Bristol and he is clearly tired of Chastain on the race track. It has been a crazy start to the 2024 NASCAR season, and the Team Penske driver hopes it goes his way next weekend. Blaney hasn’t won at Circuit of the Americas but will look to win his first road course since the inaugural Charlotte ROVAL event.

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Video: Blaney cautions ‘it’s early in the year’ as he carries Ford banner

Ryan Blaney seems to be leading Ford early in the NASCAR Cup Series season, but he’s not getting caught up in the numbers. Blaney, who is back atop the standings for the first time since winning the championship last fall, is the only Ford driver …

Ryan Blaney seems to be leading Ford early in the NASCAR Cup Series season, but he’s not getting caught up in the numbers.

Blaney, who is back atop the standings for the first time since winning the championship last fall, is the only Ford driver inside the top 10 in the championship standing. Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric is the next Ford driver in the standings but down in 15th position.

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Saturday, Blaney addressed the point situation and the gap between the Team Penske drivers. He did so after leading Cup Series practice for the Food City 500 and winning the pole.

NASCAR starting lineup for Food City 500 at Bristol

Check out the NASCAR Cup Series starting lineup for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend!

Bristol Motor Speedway is next for the NASCAR Cup Series, and Team Penske will lead the field to the green flag. [autotag]Ryan Blaney[/autotag] won the pole for the Food City 500 at Bristol this weekend. Josh Berry will join Blaney on the front row for Sunday afternoon’s event. Ford officially locked out the front row.

Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano will follow the two drivers on the second row. Most notably, Noah Gragson, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, and Ross Chastain all qualified 20th or worse for Sunday’s event. The track was messed up due to its constantly changing grip and traction.

The full starting lineup is available below.

Food City 500 starting lineup:

  1. No. 12 Ryan Blaney
  2. No. 4 Josh Berry
  3. No. 11 Denny Hamlin
  4. No. 22 Joey Logano
  5. No. 9 Chase Elliott
  6. No. 14 Chase Briscoe
  7. No. 34 Michael McDowell
  8. No. 24 William Byron
  9. No. 23 Bubba Wallace
  10. No. 5 Kyle Larson
  11. No. 19 Martin Truex Jr.
  12. No. 20 Christopher Bell
  13. No. 21 Harrison Burton
  14. No. 8 Kyle Busch
  15. No. 43 Erik Jones
  16. No. 71 Zane Smith
  17. No. 6 Brad Keselowski
  18. No. 7 Corey LaJoie
  19. No. 54 Ty Gibbs
  20. No. 31 Daniel Hemric
  21. No. 2 Austin Cindric
  22. No. 10 Noah Gragson
  23. No. 45 Tyler Reddick
  24. No. 38 Todd Gilliland
  25. No. 41 Ryan Preece
  26. No. 42 John Hunter Nemechek
  27. No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  28. No. 99 Daniel Suarez
  29. No. 48 Alex Bowman
  30. No. 16 A.J. Allmendinger
  31. No. 3 Austin Dillon
  32. No. 51 Justin Haley
  33. No. 15 Kaz Grala
  34. No. 17 Chris Buescher
  35. No. 77 Carson Hocevarr
  36. No. 1 Ross Chastain

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Blaney runs to Bristol pole in sweep of Saturday sessions

Ryan Blaney swept Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series activity at Bristol Motor Speedway by claiming the pole for the Food City 500. The Team Penske driver went to the top of the leaderboard in the final round of qualifying with a lap of 124.954mph …

Ryan Blaney swept Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series activity at Bristol Motor Speedway by claiming the pole for the Food City 500.

The Team Penske driver went to the top of the leaderboard in the final round of qualifying with a lap of 124.954mph (15.356s). It was Blaney’s 10th pole win in the Cup Series and his first at Bristol.

“I’m proud of the whole Menards group,” Blaney said. “The Ford Mustang was fast all day and really good in round one, and made some adjustments for the second round, and I think the track kind of caught everybody by surprise, honestly. The tire fall off, the grip loss behind the wheel was incredible. It’s huge. So it was like, who can not mess up a lap and still put a decent time down? That was fun. It was fun working through it. I wish I could even do it over again and try to make our car even better because I think there was still some more out of there.

“It’s cool to get our first pole of the year and excited to go tomorrow.”

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Josh Berry earned a career-best starting position by qualifying second. Berry will start on the front row after putting down a lap of 124.792mph.

Denny Hamlin qualified third (124.178mph), Joey Logano, fourth (123.746mph), Chase Elliott, fifth (122.882mph), Chase Briscoe, sixth (122.858mph), Michael McDowell, seventh (122.108mph) and William Byron, eighth (121.666mph).

Bubba Wallace qualified ninth (121.612mph) and Kyle Larson rounded out the top 10 (114.603mph).

Martin Truex Jr. qualified 11th after missing the final round. Christopher Bell ended up 12th.

Nine-time Bristol winner Kyle Busch qualified 14th. Erik Jones completed the top 15.

It was an adventurous session for many drivers who experienced a sudden loss of grip between practice and qualifying. Multiple drivers got out of shape on their qualifying laps but all avoided disaster.

Notable drivers who will start deep in the field: Tyler Reddick (23rd), Alex Bowman (29th), Chris Buescher (34th), and Ross Chastain (36th).

RESULTS

New Cup aero package making ‘traffic’ the Phoenix buzzword

“Traffic” will be the buzzword for NASCAR Cup Series drivers this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. “I think the biggest thing…when we mess with rules packages like this – the goal for this package was being better in traffic; that’s the whole thing,” …

“Traffic” will be the buzzword for NASCAR Cup Series drivers this weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

“I think the biggest thing…when we mess with rules packages like this — the goal for this package was being better in traffic; that’s the whole thing,” Ryan Blaney said Friday. “The cars are going to drive how they drive by themselves, and we’ll deal with it and adjust for that, but how do they do in traffic? That’s the biggest thing. The only gripe that you hear of drivers is, ‘Oh, they’re terrible in traffic. We’ve got to get that better.’ So hopefully we just end this weekend and everyone kind of agrees that it’s a step in the right direction.”

Sunday’s Shriner’s Children 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX) is the first with a new rules package for short tracks and road courses. It features a simplified rear diffuser with fewer vertical strakes, no engine panel strakes and a three-inch spoiler. The changes will reduce downforce on the cars.

“If the trailing car can be a little bit closer to the car in front of them and just not get as tight and just lose so much ground…” Blaney said. “That’s the goal. Hopefully it’s achieved.”

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Blaney was one of six drivers who participated in the two-day test at Phoenix in December with the rules package and felt he learned just a little from that opportunity. The simplified diffuser appeared to be a slight improvement during the test.

Friday, teams were given an extended practice session (55 minutes) to work through the new package.

“I think what you’re looking for [is] just, all right, what’s the balance shift?” Blaney said. “Maybe try to get in a little bit of traffic kind of see how the balance of your car shifts compared to the old package. I mean, honestly, in December, there were little things here and there that I think it did better. It wasn’t light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn’t the save-all, but hopefully it’s in the right direction.

“Just seeing what balance is from the fall to now, I think teams are looking forward to that. If you can get around some traffic, too, I think that’s going to be what you’re going to see some guys doing, especially probably at the end of practice when they kind of start fine-tuning their stuff.”

‘What a cool finish’ – Blaney comes up short at Atlanta by mere inches

Ryan Blaney was inches – 0.003s – from being right at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He thought he had made the right decisions on the last lap Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway and had put himself in the safest spot on the racetrack. But Blaney was scored …

Ryan Blaney was inches — 0.003s — from being right at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

He thought he had made the right decisions on the last lap Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway and had put himself in the safest spot on the racetrack. But Blaney was scored second to Daniel Suarez in a three-wide photo finish in the Ambetter 400 that also included Kyle Busch. At the finish line, Blaney was on the inside lane, Busch was in the middle and Suarez was outside.

“I thought I laid back enough in [Turns] 1 and 2 to kind of not let both lanes get that big of a run,” Blaney said. “I did that the three laps before the end, and I was able to kind of manage it fairly well, but they just got both lanes shoving super hard. I just chose the bottom. It’s the safest place to be.

“What a cool finish. … That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that — race clean, three-wide finish to the end.”

Blaney’s No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang led at the white flag and committed to the bottom lane through Turns 1 and 2. It was where he stayed going down the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4 as Kyle Busch shot to the middle and Suarez to the outside lane.

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The finish was so close the track’s infield video board and leaderboard initially had Blaney still in first place. NASCAR immediately put the finish under review and had to confirm that Suarez was the winner.

“I’m happy for Daniel,” Blaney said. “That was cool to see. It was fun racing with Kyle [Busch]. I can’t complain. I’ve won them by very, very little, too, so I can’t complain too much when I lose them by that much. I’m proud of the BodyArmor Zero Sugar car. Our Ford Mustang was fast and close.”

One of just a few drivers who was not involved in any of the nine cautions for crashes, Blaney led 31 laps. As he spoke to the media on pit road, he got his first look at the finish on the video board — all smiles at how close it was between them.

“It was a fun night, fun racing,” he said. “I didn’t think they’d get that big of a run on me. I thought I did a good job of getting close off of (Turn) 2 to where I kind of had some of their energy. I guess they just got hooked up super good and got a massive run, and I can’t block both lanes.

“It was fun racing, but just a couple inches short. I’m happy for Daniel, though. That was fun racing him and Kyle. That was fun.”

Blaney ready for 500 in spite of still feeling effects of Duel crash

Ryan Blaney will be ready to climb into his Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the Daytona 500, but the reigning series champion will be working through continued soreness. The Pesnke driver took a hard hit into the outside wall in the trioval …

Ryan Blaney will be ready to climb into his Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the Daytona 500, but the reigning series champion will be working through continued soreness.

The Pesnke driver took a hard hit into the outside wall in the trioval at Daytona International Speedway during his qualifying race Thursday night. He was hooked in the right rear by William Byron, who had been knocked out of shape by Kyle Busch in the draft. It was the second time Blaney crashed at Daytona in six months, nose-first, from a right rear hook.

“I’m sore that’s for sure,” Blaney said Saturday morning. “I’m probably more sore today than yesterday. I feel like the second day is always the day of more soreness – the neck area, all down the back, just muscles getting strained. That’s kind of the biggest thing. Everything else felt fine, just all of your muscles down your shoulders and stuff gets pulled in weird areas that you’re not used to, so that’s the most sore today.

“I’ve been trying to be ginger with it. Everything else I felt fine with, mentally and stuff like that, so that was good. I’ll be fine to go. Hopefully, if we were to run tomorrow, I’d be good to go then. If I get another buffer day, if we run Monday, I’ll be even better. Just a little sore, but that stuff will pass.”

A physical therapist from the Team Penske camp will be back at Daytona before the race. The group went home after the Duel races, so Blaney hasn’t had much work done for the soreness but will use that resource if he’s still hurting before the Daytona 500.

The frustration has since passed, but Blaney remains adamant about such crashes not happening again. It was the third consecutive race at Daytona that Blaney felt he’d been put in that position, and Thursday night he didn’t shy away from criticizing his fellow drivers for the “awful pushes” that create the crashes.

Blaney revealed the hit Thursday night was a 55G impact. In August, when he was sent nose-first into the outside wall in Turn 4 when he was hooked in the right rear by a spinning Ty Gibbs, it was a 70G impact. The data comes from the data mouthpiece Blaney wears, something he began doing after hitting an unprotected wall nose-first at Nashville Superspeedway in late June.

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“I feel like the Nashville hit was by far the hardest hit I’ve ever taken,” Blaney said. “The mouthpiece data has been really good for us to see because you have the black box data from the car, but that’s just showing the car g-load and impact. The important one is what does the driver feel and take? It’s a huge part of the equation and that’s how you separate, ‘OK, the car took this impact. The driver takes this impact.’ I didn’t have a mouthpiece in Nashville. I’ve been wearing it every week since then just to make sure, because you never know when it can happen, and it’s good to have that data.

“Wake Forest has done a good job of really working hard at that and those folks are great, so I don’t know what Nashville would have been. It felt way worse and I look at the mental side of it. Mentally, I was way more messed up after Nashville than I was at these two hits at this racetrack, but Nashville was by far the hardest one. The best data I have to go off of is these two.”

A week after the Nashville crash, Blaney admitted he’d suffered from concussion-like symptoms. Before competing at the Chicago street course, the race after Nashville, Blaney worked with Dr. Micky Collins, who founded the sports medicine concussion program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Collins has experience working with concussed drivers, most notably doing so with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Blaney has dealt with the immediate soreness and recovered from the multiple hard hits he’s suffered over the last year, but he hasn’t given much thought to the cumulative toll all of those have taken.

“It’s more than I’d like to take, but that’s part of our sport,” Blaney said. “You understand that you do this for a reason, and you understand the risks of it, and it’s just what we do. I don’t ever think about the bad side of this. If you’re ever worried about strapping in the car of like, ‘I hope I don’t take a big hit again,’ that’s just not a mentality of anybody. All you try to do is find out how to win the race, and you understand when you sign up, I understood when I signed up for this thing watching dad race that there’s dangers of it and things are going to happen.

“I don’t really see that it’s taken a toll on me personally. It stinks sitting around being sore and having a hard time moving around the next morning, but you just get over it and take Advil and figure it out. That’s all you can do, but that’s why we love it and why we do it. You never think of the negative side of it. You just try to figure out when those things do happen, ‘Hey, did we do all we can to make sure I was as safe as possible?’ And if the answer is yes, awesome. We checked that box. We did a great job and, if not, you try to work on things to get it better, and that’s all you can do. There’s only so much you can do.”

WATCH: Ryan Blaney takes massive hit during Duel No. 2 at Daytona

Watch Ryan Blaney’s massive crash at Daytona International Speedway during the second qualifying duel.

[autotag]Ryan Blaney[/autotag] may have the most momentum entering 2024 after his NASCAR Cup Series championship; however, that came to a screeching halt. Blaney was running in the top 10 spots during the second Daytona 500 qualifying duel but crashed out after Kyle Busch gave William Byron a nasty bump. Blaney then went straight up the track into the wall.

Below, you can watch Blaney’s massive hit at Daytona. The driver of the No. 12 car exited under his own power and walked to the ambulance.

The second Daytona 500 qualifying duel is continuing on FOX Sports 1. Alongside Blaney, Busch, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Noah Gragson, Riley Herbst, and B.J. McLeod were also involved.

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Champion patch on firesuit ‘meant a lot’ to Blaney

Ryan Blaney appreciates having a visual reminder of his NASCAR Cup Series championship accomplishment every time he prepares for a race this season. “That meant a lot; it did mean a ton,” Blaney said of his new firesuit featuring the champion patch. …

Ryan Blaney appreciates having a visual reminder of his NASCAR Cup Series championship accomplishment every time he prepares for a race this season.

“That meant a lot; it did mean a ton,” Blaney said of his new firesuit featuring the champion patch. “It was one of those things that was like a month removed from all those celebrations, and it’s in the new year — you get the trophy, you get the Goodyear car, you get the ring, and then once the banquet is done that stuff is over. You’ve got all of that stuff, but then it’s a nice little refresher for the new year when you pull out the firesuit from the bag and you see the ‘champion’ logo beneath the NASCAR logo. That part was nice.

“You look at that every morning, at least I will on race day. You look at it, and it’s one of those little things you notice. It’s kind of a nice little reminder.”

It’s a detail that began appearing on a driver’s firesuit around the 2010s and one that has become something the reigning series champion has looked forward to seeing for the first time. If a driver wins additional championships, the patch is updated to reflect 2X champion, 3X champion and so on.

Blaney wore it for the first time in competition at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, where he finished on the podium after starting last.

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The third driver to win a Cup Series championship with Roger Penske, the triumph felt like a long time coming for Blaney. As a driver just beginning his NASCAR national series career in 2012, Blaney watched teammate Brad Keselowski celebrate a championship. Joey Logano has since won two championships (2018, 2022).

“I was just getting to the organization when Brad won his in ’12, and it’s nice to walk around,” Blaney said. “You’re like, ‘Man, I feel like I’ve done something really nice for the whole company and organization, for Roger Penske and everyone working there.’ I don’t want to say you feel validated in being there because everyone always believes in you, but it’s just like a personal confidence booster.

“It’s nice to feel part of that champion group that’s won for (Roger), so it personally makes you feel a little bit better and a little bit more certified in being there and racing for the cause each week.”

The season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 18 starts Blaney’s title defense. Blaney has never won the sport’s biggest race and would love nothing more than to be the fourth driver to accomplish as much for Penske.

“You’ve got to win the 500,” Blaney said of the attitude at Team Penske. “You need to have a shot at winning the 500. That’s what’s next. Try to just keep getting milestones for Roger Penske and try to win historic races and bring more championships and stuff like that. That’s just the main goal.

“Them winning the (Rolex) 24 was great, but now it’s like we have to do it again in Daytona here in a couple of weeks. We’re usually fairly decent at trying to continue to stack on big wins from the other race teams that he has, so that’s top of the list right now.”

From last to Clash podium for Blaney

Ryan Blaney made the most of the provisional he needed for a spot in the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, earning a place on the podium alongside winner Denny Hamlin and runner-up Kyle Busch. Not typically a thing in NASCAR, the winner’s podium …

Ryan Blaney made the most of the provisional he needed for a spot in the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, earning a place on the podium alongside winner Denny Hamlin and runner-up Kyle Busch. Not typically a thing in NASCAR, the winner’s podium with its medals for the top three was a salute to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s history as an Olympic venue.

The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion was not fast enough to earn a spot in the field on his qualifying speed. Blaney needed to be in the top 22 to lock himself into the event, but he wound up 26th on the chart. The Clash field, however, has 23 drivers, and the final spot goes to the driver highest in points from the 2023 season who is not yet locked into the race.

Blaney took the provisional and started last. A methodical drive to the front put the Team Penske driver in position to contend for the victory when the final caution flew with 10 laps to go. Blaney restarted second on the outside of the front row before ultimately settling for a third-place finish.

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“The plan was not to take a provisional,” Blaney said. “Our group was pretty slow. I guess we just couldn’t go, so we were lucky that we got in the race and then we did a good job all night. We just kind of stayed clean, and our car was fast, too, to just kind of drive up through the field. A couple of restarts went our way to where our lanes went.”

It took time for Blaney to get there, and his average running position through 150 laps was 13.3. The race’s first half nearly went caution-free until a spin one lap short of the break halted the action. Blaney was running 15th midway through the race.

However, clocked as the fastest driver on restarts, Blaney charged into the top 10 when four cautions occurred in the race’s second half. He also took advantage of the choose rule, lining up fourth with 10 laps to go and then second on the final restart.

Blaney pulled himself into contention in the closing stages but third was the best he could manage. Motorsport Images

“I had a shot,” Blaney said. “I got a terrible restart on the last one, but I probably wouldn’t have won anyway. We came from a long way back, so it was fun. I think every time I’ve been here, I’ve been spun backward two or three times, so it’s nice not to have that at the last one. It’s good.”

It is the best finish Blaney had earned in a Clash event and his first top-five finish in three starts in L.A. It is also the first time since 2020 in a Clash event that Blaney has finished inside the top 10.

Saturday’s race was moved up by a day and condensed because of severe weather expected in the area for the remainder of the weekend.

“The demographic and the way that they kind of pulled the trigger on today trying to get it in, I think that was really smart by NASCAR,” Blaney said of the third edition of The Clash in L.A. “Maybe it doesn’t show in the stands just because of what it was, but it gets a lot of support, and you also have the NASCAR Mexico Series here too. I think that’s good as well to kind of grow their side. It’s a neat area to do it in.”