In NASCAR’s 76-year history, there has never been a more perfect primary sponsorship than the one Ryan Blaney and Team Penske had in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Dent Wizard, North America’s largest provider of automotive reconditioning services, adorned the No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse in Sunday’s event, but there was also a wizard of some kind inside the racecar, as the defending NASCAR Cup Series championship somehow brought his battered vehicle back into contention.
Blaney wasn’t just holding on at the back of the lead draft, either. The High Point, North Carolina native quickly returned to the battle for the victory and ended up giving his teammate, Joey Logano, the shove that propelled the No. 22 into Victory Lane.
With a smattering of white bearbond down the left side of the blue and white machine, Blaney managed to bring home a third-place result, saving himself from becoming another causality from the playoff-opener at the 1.54-mile superspeedway-adjacent facility of Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“Honestly, I can’t believe we got back up to where we did. The No. 12 boys did a really good job of fixing it,” said Blaney after the race. “I’m surprised it didn’t have more damage than what it did. From my seat, I got drilled in the left-rear, or the door I guess where it hit me, and then the right-rear got off the fence.”
The damage in question was sustained at Lap 205, when Chris Buescher suddenly snapped loose on the inside lane, shooting him up the racetrack and into the left rear of Blaney, who was inches away from clearing the incident completely.
After a major left-rear impact from the No. 17, Blaney took some more damage with the right rear after sliding into the outside wall. Then, as he was spinning down the racetrack, the No. 12 suffered a third hit, pancaking the side of Martin Truex, Jr., another NASCAR Cup Series playoff driver.
Somehow, in the age of broken toe links and independent rear suspension components, Blaney hit Truex at the exact perfect angle to not mess up his racecar. Although, the same couldn’t be said for Truex, who was forced to retire from the event with major damage.
“I didn’t know how damaged we were, but I was able to carve up through traffic and kind of get through the middle pretty good. I’m really proud of that effort,” Blaney added.
In the true fashion of a racecar driver, Blaney, who pretty much had a top three guaranteed despite a wounded racecar, says he thought about making a three-wide pass for the victory on the frontstretch, but decided against it, falling in line to finish third.
“I had a thought of going three-wide on the frontstretch and I’m like, ‘Man, this is gonna be tight and we’ve already had a really good day going, great points and all that stuff,’ so third is a really good day,” Blaney said.
Even though Blaney leaves Atlanta Motor Speedway with some extra work for the Team Penske fabricators, he also leaves the state of Georgia as the points leader in the NASCAR Cup Series, heading to the final two races of the Round of 16 at Watkins Glen and Bristol with a 45-point cushion over the cutline.
“This thing looks ugly, but a really good finish so I’m proud of the effort by everybody.”
