Tag: Ryan Blaney

Blaney has just one more chance after Homestead defeat

Ryan Blaney has plenty to think about leaving Homestead-Miami Speedway after being bested by Tyler Reddick in the final two corners on the final lap. Blaney finished second in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 and remains out of a transfer spot with …

Ryan Blaney has plenty to think about leaving Homestead-Miami Speedway after being bested by Tyler Reddick in the final two corners on the final lap.

Blaney finished second in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 and remains out of a transfer spot with one race left in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Round of 8. The reigning series champion had taken the lead from Denny Hamlin with two laps to go Sunday, but was then passed by Reddick, who flew by on the outside, on the final lap in Turn 3. The side-by-side between the two drivers didn’t last long as Reddick finished the pass in Turn 4 and drove to the victory.

“It’s obvious disappointment,” Blaney said. “I had a great shot to win and I didn’t have a very good last lap. Man, I thought I got into [Turn] 3 hard and [Reddick] just blitzed it off in there and it stuck for him, which is pretty impressive. I hate we gave one away there like that. I don’t know if we gave it away; we got the lead back after losing it on the restart and the last lap just didn’t really play out for us.

“It definitely stinks. I appreciate everybody on the [No.] 12 team for bringing a really fast race car. We had a great shot to go to Phoenix, and still got one more chance, so we still have to look forward to that.”

Blaney restarted on the inside of the front row for the final green flag with seven laps to go, but Hamlin grabbed the top spot by going to the outside of Blaney and Reddick in Turn 1.

With two laps to go, the Team Penske driver used the bottom lane to get to the inside of Hamlin for the race lead. He completed the pass in Turns 3 and 4 coming to the white flag. Reddick went to second place on the final lap off Turn 2 and easily drove around the outside of Blaney, who left a lane open, going into Turn 3.

“Yeah, a shame,” Blaney said. “I’ll be picking through what I should have done different [all night], probably, and that’s just the way it goes. Overall, really proud of the effort and hopefully we can bring it to them next week.”

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Monday will be the first chance Blaney has to look ahead to Martinsville Speedway (Nov. 3, 2 p.m. ET). Until then, he admitted, “This feeling will suck,” after being so close to a victory. Although he tries not to stew on results, he said there are tons of things he could have done differently on the final lap.

To start, there was no getting to the bottom in Turns 1 and 2, which gave Reddick clean air as he moved around Hamlin. It wasn’t even possible to slide up in front of Reddick in Turn 3 — the timing worked better for Reddick to drive it further into the corner and make it stick.

“The Toyotas could do that really good all day,” Blaney said. “Their entry speed was crazy fast and it benefitted him there. It stinks. It was an up and down day and it was a shame to lose one on the last lap like that.”

Blaney led 47 laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway and earned 13 playoff points. He’s now 38 points out of a transfer spot going into the final race of the penultimate round, but he is the defending winner at Martinsville.

“I’m not fired up right now for Martinsville,” Blaney said. “I’ll take the night to replay a couple things and figure out what I could have done better. Tomorrow morning, we’ll re-stack and get ready for Martinsville.

“I’m excited, though. I’m super excited about the speed we had today. I can’t complain about that. Last week’s speed was great, too, before we got in the wreck. Hopefully we bring that same speed to Martinsville.”

Blaney feeling ‘all right’ after headaches in Vegas

Ryan Blaney says he is feeling fine after complaining of a headache last weekend after taking a driver’s side hit during practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway because of a tire puncture. In the race the following day, he was involved in a multi-car …

Ryan Blaney says he is feeling fine after complaining of a headache last weekend after taking a driver’s side hit during practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway because of a tire puncture.

In the race the following day, he was involved in a multi-car crash on lap 89 on the frontstretch when Brad Keselowski clipped his car as Keselowski came back across the racetrack.

The hit also broke the toe link, and that didn’t help matters either as Blaney described flopping around in the cockpit as he drove his damaged car back to pit road.

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“I’m feeling all right,” Blaney told reporters at Homestead-Miami in a video posted by Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “Yeah, a couple of hard hits. I’ve had more hard hits than I’d like, especially recently in the last year and a half or so, two years. But I’m doing OK.

“Our team does a good job of doing all we can in the car to try to make sure we’re as safe as we can be, and there’s some other tweaks with the car that we’ve got to continue to work on. But I’m feeling all right.”

Blaney asked for Advil or something of that nature to help his head during last Sunday’s race. He admitted afterwards his head was “killing me,” and he got short relief from what his Team Penske team gave him but it started to hurt again before the checkered flag.

In 2023, Blaney had two frontal impacts that he spoke at length about because of their lingering effects. Blaney crashed into a wall that was not protected with a SAFER barrier at Nashville Superspeedway in June, and said he had concussion-like symptoms the week after. But he didn’t miss a race and worked with Dr. Michael Collins of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Sports Medicine Concussion program in the days after the Nashville race.

Blaney also crashed head-first at Daytona International Speedway in August when he was right-rear hooked in the draft in Turn 4. Because he wears a data mouthpiece, Blaney said the Daytona crash registered at a 70G impact.

When asked if there needs to be more changes to the Next Gen car to help with impacts, Blaney said “definitely” and it’s something to be discussed with NASCAR during the offseason.

“I plan on doing that,” Blaney said. “I feel like they’ve done a really good job of helping the front and the rear impacts; those were kind of the big things and I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of feeling a lot of the big front and rear impacts, and they have gotten better.

“That was kind of my first big hit with a side impact, so I feel like the next step is how do you get the center section of these cars to be a little bit more forgiving. We’ve worked the front, rear, and done a pretty good job.

“You look at the car last week after the practice crash, and it just looked like it was scraped on the left side. There was no huge body damage. It’s just all brick right there. So, we’ve got to do a little bit and hopefully we can figure that out and help those impacts.”

Blaney needs two perfect races to have a chance of retaining title

Ryan Blaney likely needs two perfect weeks to end the Round of 8 if he wants to defend his NASCAR Cup Series championship. Blaney is 47 points out of a transfer spot after a long Las Vegas weekend. It started with a crash in practice on his second …

Ryan Blaney likely needs two perfect weeks to end the Round of 8 if he wants to defend his NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Blaney is 47 points out of a transfer spot after a long Las Vegas weekend. It started with a crash in practice on his second lap on the track, because of a tire puncture. On Sunday, in a backup car, Blaney finished 32nd after being collected in an early crash that damaged his Team Penske Ford Mustang.

“I felt great,” Blaney said about the start of the day. “I got halfway there; I think I got to like 15th, and I was ready to restack. I was like, all right, we’ll start Stage 2 in 15th, halfway there, and felt pretty good about it. We were at least trying to contend, and I feel like we were going to get better in cleaner air, too.

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“So, yeah, I felt great about our pace. It was just a matter of getting there, and I just didn’t even get to rerack and go from there.”

Despite starting in the rear because of needing to go to the backup car, Blaney was making decent headway early in the afternoon. Blaney cracked the top 20 by lap 27 and led some laps during the first round of green flag pit stops by staying out longer on the cycle. He finished the first stage in 17th place.

The incident that changed Blaney’s afternoon occurred on lap 89. Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, and Brad Keselowski were involved in a crash coming off Turn 4 that started from a three-wide collision. Keselowski clipped Blaney as his car slid back up the frontstretch, which knocked Blaney into the outside wall and damaged the right side of his car. He fell multiple laps down as the team repaired the car.

“Honestly, I couldn’t even see Brad in my A-post,” Blaney said. “The A-post is so freakin’ big; I couldn’t see where he was in the grass. Timmy [Fedewa] said, ‘coming up,’ and I saw him at the last second, and it was too late for me to get left. I thought I could squeeze on the outside and just got clipped and bent both the rear toe links. It was no good after that. So, yeah, a long weekend.

“It’s one of those crappy weekends, man. You feel like you can’t do anything right and nothing is going your way, but hopefully, we can go and contend the next couple of weeks. All we can do is try to win the race.”

The impact of two crashes in one weekend took its toll on Blaney. As he worked to salvage his afternoon, Blaney reported to his team that he was “struggling” and needing some Advil or something to help with a headache.

“My head was killing me,” Blaney said. “When we broke the right rear toe link, flopping all around in there trying to get back to pit road – you just get to freakin’ basketball back and forth, back and forth, on the headrest. I was fine until the end, and then my head started to kill me again. It helped me a little bit, but it was a long day.”

Asked if he was concerned about any lingering issues, Blaney said, “We’ll find out. I’ll be in Miami next week, though. I’ll tell you that.”

Blaney ‘confident’ about coming from behind after Vegas practice crash

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 …

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.

Reddick leads Cup practice at Las Vegas, Blaney crashes

Tyler Reddick was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, while fellow championship contender Ryan Blaney was relegated to a backup car. Reddick (P) topped the board at 183.187mph (29.478s). The fast time was set …

Tyler Reddick was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, while fellow championship contender Ryan Blaney was relegated to a backup car.

Reddick (P) topped the board at 183.187mph (29.478s). The fast time was set during Reddick’s fifth lap on the track.

Martin Truex Jr. was second fastest at 182.723mph; Ty Gibbs was third at 182.519mph; Ross Chastain, fourth at 182.402mph and Carson Hocevar completed the top five at 182.315 mph.

Bubba Wallace was sixth at 182.156mph; Zane Smith, seventh at 182.057mph; Ricky Stenhouse Jr., eighth at 182.05 mph; Kyle Larson (P), ninth at 181.941mph and Alex Bowman rounded out the top 10 at 181.861mph.

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Larson is the defending South Point 400 race winner.

William Byron (P) was 11th fastest at 181.781mph; Christopher Bell (P), 13th at 181.702mph; Denny Hamlin (P), 18th at 181.427mph and Chase Elliott (P) was 20th at 181.269mph.

Joey Logano (P) was 30th fastest at 179.892mph, and Blaney was the slowest playoff driver, having only completed one lap. The left rear tire on Blaney’s car went down because of a puncture in Turn 1, which spun his Ford Mustang around and sent it into the outside wall with contact on the driver’s side.

Blaney will be in a backup car for Sunday’s race. He was the only incident in practice.

Martin Truex Jr. was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average. It was Truex over Reddick, Chastain, Elliott, and Larson.

There are 37 drivers entered in Sunday’s race.

(P) denotes Playoff driver

Ryan Blaney shows frustration at Alex Bowman after wreck at Talladega in 2024

Ryan Blaney expresses his frustration at Alex Bowman after wrecking out at Talladega Superspeedway. Check out what Blaney said about Bowman!

[autotag]Ryan Blaney[/autotag]’s playoff hopes took a massive hit at the end of Stage 2, as he found himself wrecking just before the start-finish line. A bad bump from Alex Bowman caused Blaney to spin out and collect Ross Chastain. Both drivers were badly damaged and weren’t able to continue. Thankfully for Blaney, he only lost three points after a historic pileup later in the event.

However, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion was not happy with Bowman. Following the incident, Blaney expressed his frustration about Bowman, claiming that he drove right through him at the end of Stage 2.

“I had a feeling [Kyle Busch] would kind of pull out and help a Chevy, he wasn’t gonna help me, obviously,” Blaney said. “So, we got in the middle, and I didn’t think it was terrible. We were probably running fifth or sixth, and then [Alex Bowman] just drove straight through me in the trioval. Wrecked the [expletive] out of me. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

Blaney also did other interviews saying the same thing, including one with NBC Sports that blamed Bowman. At the end of the day, Blaney’s points advantage wasn’t affected much, but it could have been much better for the Round of 12 finale. Now, Blaney must go into the Charlotte ROVAL and have a solid day to make the Round of 8.

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NASCAR explains decision to park Blaney at Watkins Glen

NASCAR’s Brad Moran has explained that officials followed its rule when towing Ryan Blaney back to the garage at Watkins Glen and declaring the Team Penske driver out of the race. Blaney was one of the multiple drivers involved in the first-lap …

NASCAR’s Brad Moran has explained that officials followed its rule when towing Ryan Blaney back to the garage at Watkins Glen and declaring the Team Penske driver out of the race.

Blaney was one of the multiple drivers involved in the first-lap crash through the Bus Stop on Sunday. The reigning series champion made contact with Brad Keselowski in the incident, and the mechanical damage left him unable to drive his Ford Mustang. He complained in the garage that NASCAR should let the team diagnose their vehicle and not be the ones to declare the day over.

However, NASCAR introduced the damaged vehicle policy (DVP) in 2017, which dictates that cars taken to the garage from an on-track incident cannot return to the race. In part, NASCAR wanted to avoid damaged vehicles returning to the track and shedding debris. Cup Series teams get seven minutes to attempt to repair their vehicles on the DVP clock.

In the case of Blaney, however, the issue started on the track. Any time a car has to be towed back, it is out of the race.

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“If you’re in an incident and on the DVP and you cannot drive the vehicle back to your pit stall, then you are out of the race at that point,” said Moran, the Cup Series managing director, on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “If you drive it into the garage or behind the wall, at that point, you’re out of the race and have to go to the care center. It’s a variety of reasons; there were efficiencies and safety. But all of the industry and collaboration put this together in 2017.

“It was very unfortunate. I totally get Blaney’s frustration, but he was involved in the incident with [Brad Keselowski], which did end up busting the front suspension or steering, and that would be consistent with what we’ve been doing since 2017.”

Blaney also referred to cars towed back to pit road with flat tires and not taken out of the race. Moran acknowledged that is an issue with the Next Gen car that NASCAR has had to work to address, but it is not the same as a damaged vehicle.

“They could be perfectly fine with flat tires and getting stuck and couldn’t move,” Moran said. “Now that’s not the same thing as bringing a damaged vehicle back to pit road; that’s a vehicle that has steering and suspension and everything working but cannot move due to flat tires. We do bring them in to allow them to change tires and continue.

“The last thing we want to do is put cars out of the car. So, we do everything we can do to not do that but we have rules we have to follow.”

Blaney has since admitted — also on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio — that he didn’t know the rule before giving his television interview. Since then, Blaney has looked over the rule book and said NASCAR did everything by the rule and that he understands the situation.

Blaney out on lap one at the Glen in crushing playoff blow

Watkins Glen didn’t even need a full lap to shake up the NASCAR Cup Series standings in its playoff debut, not least for Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney. Drivers were working their way through the new-look bus stop chicane on the opening lap of Sunday’s …

Watkins Glen didn’t even need a full lap to shake up the NASCAR Cup Series standings in its playoff debut, not least for Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney.

Drivers were working their way through the new-look bus stop chicane on the opening lap of Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen when contact between Corey LaJoie and Kyle Busch sent Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet spinning around. The field behind them scattered every which way to avoid the accident, but not everyone was able to.

 

Christopher Bell was spun around after Busch backed into the side of his No. 20 Toyota and received minimal damage and continued. Denny Hamlin was less fortunate, slamming into the left-rear corner of Busch’s car with the right-front of his own No. 11 Toyota and sliding into the outside wall, getting heavy damage in the process. Hamlin continued in the race, but he and Busch fell two laps down while making repairs.

Blaney got the worst of it after running into the back of fellow Ford playoff contender Brad Keselowski as the field stacked up. The incident looked minor but caused significant damage. He brought his No. 12 Ford to a stop and was towed to garage.

Per the rule book, that meant his day was over. Blaney was relegated to a 38th-place finish that gave him just a single point in the standings.

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The third-generation racer entered Sunday atop the playoff standings with a 45-point edge on the cutline that should cushion the blow, but he’ll go to Bristol Motor Speedway at risk of elimination.

Afterward Blaney was seen arguing with NASCAR officials. He later vented his frustrations over not having a chance to get his No. 12 Ford on track.

“Give us a chance to fix it,” Blaney told NBC Sports’ broadcast. “How are they going to dictate if we’re done or not? They have no idea of the damage. They said because I couldn’t drive it back to the pit box, we’re done. But if you have four flats, you get towed back to the pit box. You can’t drive it back.

“I don’t know what’s going on, why they wouldn’t even give us a shot to work on it, but I don’t agree with it. I don’t even know what happened, honestly. … That’s the frustrating part. [They] just don’t even give us a chance.”

Blaney admitted that he might not have made it back to the race even if given the chance. The contact with Keselowski broke his car’s steering.

“You just end our day without even letting us get to look at it before it’s in the garage,” he said. “That stinks.”

Cup champ Blaney happy playing defense: ‘I think that’s motivated us a lot’

Ryan Blaney has been the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion since February, but beginning Sunday afternoon, he’s now on championship defense. But the Team Penske driver doesn’t feel that makes him a target. “I’ve gotten wrecked a lot this year, …

Ryan Blaney has been the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion since February, but beginning Sunday afternoon, he’s now on championship defense.

But the Team Penske driver doesn’t feel that makes him a target.

“I’ve gotten wrecked a lot this year, more than other years, so I don’t know if that means I have a bullseye on my back,” Blaney said with a laugh earlier this week. “I don’t think it’s intentional; it just seems that way. But no (target on us). I feel like we’ve kind of taken it as we have to defend our championship.

“We’re still in title defense — until the year is over and you don’t win it, you’re still in title defense. So, I think that’s motivated us a lot — everyone is kind of gunning for you. … Everybody is envious of where you’re at, and everyone wants to take it away from you, and they want the outside to stop talking about you being the champ. They want to be that. I was the same way before we won the championship.”

Rusty Jarrett/Motorsport Images

Blaney won the championship in his first Championship 4 appearance. It happened in his eighth full Cup Series season and he became the lowest-seeded driver, from the No. 12 position, to win the championship in the elimination era.

The No. 12 team finds it motivating to be the ones chased or the ones with all the eyes on what they’re doing. Blaney wants it known how good his group is, and he also wants to make sure they remember themselves by delivering that message before another postseason begins.

“I want to scare every other team,” Blaney said. “I want you guys to be so good that everyone is nervous about us when we unload, and that’s kind of the mindset we’ve tried to have because I think that’s a great mindset for everyone on the team. You want everyone worrying about you because you can be that dangerous, and I think we definitely are. Hopefully that carries over.”

It was hard to argue that Blaney and his team weren’t peaking at the right time when the regular season ended. Blaney won two of the final 10 races and had five top-10 finishes. He also led 286 laps in that stretch.

Blaney was sixth in the championship standings after Darlington Raceway. He was reseeded fifth with 18 playoff points.

There is no denying that Blaney and the team are much better prepared for a playoff run this year than in 2023.

“I said it a couple of months ago, I thought our group was in a great spot,” he said. “Mentally, performance-wise, whether that’s on pit road (or) that’s on the racetrack, I feel like we’re really good. I thought this time last year we were kind of scrounging to figure out how are we going to perform how we need to because we were off a little bit and this year, I think we’re in a much better spot. So, hopefully, we can continue to bring that same pace and continue to learn at the pace that we’ve been bringing the last few months.

“But yeah, this group is in a way better spot. I think we as a whole, too, as a Team Penske, are in a much better spot as well. Hopefully that means a lot for all three of our cars and (Harrison Burton) to make a good run at it.”

Ryan Blaney provides big update on injury ahead of 2024 NASCAR playoffs

Ryan Blaney provides a big update on his hand injury ahead of the 2024 NASCAR playoffs. Check out what Blaney had to say about his hand!

[autotag]Ryan Blaney[/autotag] only lasted a few laps during the 2024 Southern 500 before Martin Truex Jr. crashed into him early in the event. It was disappointing for Blaney, who got his arm twisted up during the wreck. The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion looked hurt walking out of his car but said he was fine in a post-race interview. On Wednesday, Blaney gave another big update on his injury.

During playoff media day, Blaney said he feels good and will be ready to race at Atlanta Motor Speedway after his crash at Darlington Raceway. This is big news as Blaney looks to win his second straight Cup Series championship and put himself in rare air. The Team Penske driver has been fast during the summer and should be one of the favorites again.

Blaney enters the Round of 16 with 18 playoff points and a 13-point cushion to the playoff cut-line. This will likely be one of the craziest rounds of the playoffs with a superspeedway, Watkins Glen with new intense tire wear, and a clash in the Round of 16 finale at Bristol. Thankfully, Blaney feels good and is ready to defend his crown.

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