Racing in NASCAR is indeed a physically challenging job, and the challenge just goes up several notches on a plate track like Daytona. This time, the heat of that element of risk scorched Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney at the Daytona 500. Thankfully, he is doing well considering the magnitude of the crash that gathered 23 cars, one after another.
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“It bent it pretty weird,” he stated, updating about his wrist. “I had my initial wreck and then my wheel grabbed something. I usually let go of the wheel, but I didn’t think I needed to and just tweaked it a little bit. It’s all good.” Thankfully, after getting checked at the infield care center, he announced that his wrist was not broken.
Blaney says his wrist is fine, details what he saw in the big crash pic.twitter.com/t1MQq1gyuE
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) February 20, 2024
Earlier in Thursday’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel Qualifier, the reigning Cup Series champion had admitted to having experienced a 55g hit in his back and neck muscles. That impact was followed up by another unfortunate hit on Monday when his hand got caught in a spinning steering wheel as his Ford crashed out with several others at the 2.5-mile, high-banked speedway. As a result of the crash, Blaney had to settle for a P30 finish. Certainly not what he had expected, but at least his wrist is fine.
Blaney’s dream of replicating Dale Jarrett’s feat remains unfulfilled
The next greatest thing that Blaney could have achieved after having won the Championship last year was to build on it with his first Daytona 500 victory. It’s been over 20 years since Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett did it back in 2000. However, with the fierce competition from drivers like Alex Bowman, William Byron, and Ross Chastain, it was perhaps easier said than done.
In his 11 starts at the prestigious race, Blaney has a pair of runner-up finishes, besides several other close finishes behind the winner. But never has he been able to grab the checkered flag at the “Superbowl of NASCAR”. “I feel like I’ve been close to this thing a couple of times. I had a good shot to win it a couple years ago and it just didn’t work out,” said Blaney during the Daytona 500 media day.
In 2017, Blaney finished second to the winner Kurt Busch. Just the following year, he led more than half of the 500-mile event and still couldn’t register anything better than a P7 finish. In 2020, when Ryan Newman flipped and went airborne, Blaney was just 0.014 seconds behind race winner Denny Hamlin. Fast forward to 2022, a tug-of-war between Blaney and teammate Austin Cindric eventually resulted in the former crashing out, finishing 4th and the latter winning the race.
