Even though he’s now last in the Round of Eight standings for the NASCAR Cup playoffs after an early crash Sunday at Las Vegas, leaving him with a 38th-place finish—or more precisely, last place—Ryan Blaney does not feel he’s out of contention for the season finale in three weeks at Phoenix.
Advertisement
His solution is simple: win next Sunday at Talladega or the final race in the Round of Eight at Martinsville two weeks from now. “I’m not overjoyed, I’ll tell you that,” Blaney told reporters after wrecking on Lap 71. The damage to his No. 12 Ford Mustang was so severe that it was pointless for his Team Penske crew to try and fix the car, and rather take their lumps and move on to ‘Dega.
In a sense, Blaney now must sing a new song heading into Talladega and Martinsville, that song being, “We Did It Before And We Can Do It Again!”
“I have to come from behind like we did last year,” Blaney said of his win last year in the penultimate race of the season at Martinsville, which sent him into the final round, where he finished second in the championship battle by a mere five points to teammate Joey Logano. “Hopefully, we can win one in the next two weeks. [I] just can’t have a smooth day, it seems.”
The 2023 Cup champion hit the LVMS wall hard with nine laps left in the opening stage, ending his day. His crew made a brief attempt to repair the damage, but after closer examination, it was determined to be irreparable, particularly the steering on his Ford Mustang. “[The crash] destroyed [the] right front, right rear, destroyed everything,” a dismal Blaney said.
His car had other significant damage as well, both the left front and the right side. The entire incident began when the left front tire went down suddenly and Blaney wound up losing control, unable to keep from smacking the retaining wall.
During last year’s playoffs, Talladega was the middle race of the Round of 12. He wrecked and finished 39th. But his fourth-place finish at Kansas and 10th on the Charlotte Roval, sandwiched around his showing at ‘Dega, were enough to advance him to the Round of Eight.
Then, during last year’s Round of Eight, Blaney finished second at Homestead and won at Martinsville, giving him an automatic berth into the final round. This year, ‘Dega is the middle race of the Round of Eight, which gives it even greater priority.
Martinsville is still in the same place it was last year, so if Blaney struggles at Talladega, he still has one last chance to reprise what he did at Martinsville and send him into the final round and one last chance at earning his second career Cup championship.
“You’ve got to be optimistic,” Blaney said. “I mean, I’m not very happy right now, but tomorrow morning, I’ll be optimistic to go to the next race. So, yeah, we’ve had good success in the next two events. Hopefully, we can bring the speed and try to overcome the hole we put ourselves in today.”
Even though he wrecked last fall at Talladega, he has a strong career record at each of the last two tracks: three wins and two runner-ups at ‘Dega and two wins and two runner-ups at Martinsville. When asked if he’s in “immediate territory”—in other words, a must-win situation at both Talladega and Martinsville—Blaney didn’t hesitate in his reply. “Yeah, no doubt.”
