Ryan Blaney called himself an “innocent bystander” after being wrecked by Chris Buescher on lap 62 in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
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Even though the incident wasn’t funny, if Blaney had wanted to try and put a humorous spin on things, he might have echoed Curly from the Three Stooges: ‘I’m a victim of circumstances.’
The two drivers were coming out of Turn 1 when they sideswiped each other. Blaney got the worst of it, was sent into the grass, and wound up hitting a tire wall, ending his day and leaving him with a disappointing 36th-place finish. Buescher, meanwhile, was able to continue and finished 16th.
“It was going well till we got wrecked by the 17,” Blaney told Frontstretch.com. When asked if he thought the contact with Buescher was intentional or accidental, Blaney replied, “I don’t know. You’ve got to talk to him.”
But Blaney then quickly added, “I don’t think he intentionally meant to do it, but he overdrove (Turn) 1 and I was the innocent bystander. I thought we were really good today. I thought (we were a) third, fourth, fifth place car.”
Despite the low finish, Blaney remains seventh in the Cup standings. However, he’s had some rough recent outings, including 40th and last at Atlanta and 32nd at Michigan. Sunday’s disappointing finish was his third showing below 30th in the last six races.
“It was a shame that it didn’t end like I thought,” Blaney said. “We had speed in our car. So, it’s just an unfortunate way things go sometimes.”
Blaney tips cap to van Gisbergen after road course masterclass
Although he didn’t have much positive to say about his finish, Blaney did applaud race winner Shane van Gisbergen, who captured his second straight win on a road or street course and third overall this season.
“He’s really good at these places,” Blaney said of SVG. “He’s just really smooth and he’s really fast with lap time, but he also is not like out of control doing it. He can save tires while also maintaining solid lap time to keep him up front.
“I mean, he’s just put on a clinic on these road courses. The last three, Mexico, Chicago and here, he has really dominated. Honestly, all three of those. He’s just really technical in how he does it and his approach to it. He’s just a really solid race car driver and we’re all going to have to get a lot better at these places to have a chance.”