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“Innocent Bystander” Ryan Blaney Looks Back at Sonoma Sorrow After Chris Buescher Contact Ends Promising Race

Jerry Bonkowski
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NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney (12) talks with media at Darlington Raceway.

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.

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.”

Post Edited By:Abhishek Ramesh

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

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Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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