Everything was going according to plan for Ryan Blaney through the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs until it wasn’t. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse, who is looking to defend his 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship, entered the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs just four points outside of the Playoff cutline, and what lay ahead of him were three race tracks that he stacked up well at, historically.
However, a frustrating weekend, which started with a hard crash in Saturday’s practice session and ended in a 32nd-place finish in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after being involved in a spectacular multi-car collision on Lap 89, has undoubtedly put the driver in a hole in the Playoff standings.
Now, Blaney heads into next weekend’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway 47 points behind William Byron, who holds the final transfer spot in the standings.
LOGANO LEAPS INTO FINAL FOUR@joeylogano stretched the fuel Sunday at Las Vegas to win the #SouthPoint400, locking himself into the Championship 4 in the #NASCARPlayoffs.#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/aRRB9isV5X
— TobyChristie.com (@TobyChristieCom) October 20, 2024
While his ranking in the Playoff standings isn’t ideal, Blaney says his point deficit spells out clearly what he and his No. 12 team must do in order to advance to the Championship 4.
“I mean, I think it’s pretty simple. We have to win,” Blaney said after the race. “We’re way too far away on the cutline to try to point our way in, honestly. So, yeah, just try to win Homestead or Martinsville.”
The bad result on Sunday was a shame for the 30-year-old driver as it looked in the early portion of the race that he and crew chief Jonathan Hassler were well on their way to rebounding from the cut Goodyear tire on Friday, which sent Blaney driver’s side first into the outside wall, and forced the No. 12 team to thrash overnight, and into Sunday morning getting their backup Ford Mustang Dark Horse prepared for the race.
While Blaney started from the rear of the field in a car that he had no laps in prior to the race, the driver quickly worked his way into the top half of the field, and by the end of Stage 1 of Sunday’s race, Blaney had worked his way into the 17th position. On his march through the field, Blaney had a very competitive race car under him, evidenced by really fast lap times on the scoring sheet considering where he was mired in the field.
After climbing from his car at the end of Sunday’s race, Blaney said his spirits were high with how well he was moving through the field in his backup car.
“I felt great. I think I got halfway there, I think I got to like 15th. And I was ready to restack,” Blaney explained. “And [I’m] like alright, we’re going to start Stage 2 in 15th, halfway there, feel pretty good about it. At least just trying to contend. I felt like we were going to get better in cleaner air too. So, yeah, I felt great about our pace, was just a matter of getting there.”
Unfortunately, Blaney’s promising rebound was snuffed out early in the second Stage of the race as a multi-car crash involving Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, and Brad Keselowski erupted in front of him.
As Reddick was flipping through the infield grass, Blaney was trying to skirt by the chaos on the high side of the track. He nearly got through it all, but he was unable to see Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford Mustang skidding back across the track into his path.
“Honestly, I couldn’t even see Brad in my A-post,” Blaney recalled. “The A-post is so freaking big, I couldn’t see him down where he was in the grass. And [Spotter] Timmy [Fedewa] said coming up, and I saw him last second. It was too late for me to get left, and I thought I could squeeze on the outside and just got clipped and bent both rear toe links. It was no good after that.”
Blaney soldiered on, and would finish the race eight laps off the pace. While he wasn’t a factor for the race win himself, Blaney did at least contribute drafting help to his teammate Joey Logano, which helped Logano catch and pass race leader Daniel Suarez with just six laps remaining in the race. However, that was little consolation for Blaney on a weekend where the driver felt like the planets were aligned against him, he’s just ready to move on to Homestead.
“Long weekend. Just one of those crappy weekends, man,” Blaney anguished. “You just feel like you can’t do nothing right, nothing is going your way, but hopefully we’ll contend the next couple of weeks. That’s all we can do. Try to win races.”
