Ryan Blaney couldn’t catch a break during Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In a gut-punch moment that set the tone for the weekend, Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford found the Turn 1 retaining wall just one lap into the session. The culprit? A flat tire that sent him spinning straight into disaster.
“I had no warning,” Blaney radioed to his crew, frustration echoing through his in-car communications. He reiterated that after a quick trip to the infield care center. “I didn’t really feel anything odd or out of the ordinary. I figured, you know, a couple laps, the (air) pressures come up and you’ll be fine.”
But fine is not how it played out. “Yeah, I didn’t feel anything down the front straightaway the lap that it blew into (turn) one, so it kind of caught me by surprise. But yeah, I didn’t feel anything like super out of place to make me think that it was going to be flat into one. So that’s one of those things that stinks and catches you off guard. No indication, just the worst part of the corner.”
The timing couldn’t be worse. Blaney, the defending Cup Series champion, will be starting from the back of the pack in Sunday’s South Point 400. To make matters even more urgent, he’s sitting four points below the cut line in the Cup Series Playoffs.
“It’ll be a big challenge for multiple reasons,” Blaney said, already strategizing for Sunday’s race. “But I feel confident hopefully we can make our way through there, and we’ve got all race. Might not be able to get stage points in the first one, but hopefully by the second one, maybe we’ll get some stage points, and then hopefully the speed’s good enough to where we could run up toward the front.”
It’s a tall order, but Blaney and his team are no strangers to pressure. “Yeah, it sets us back a little bit, but this group is ready to go, and they know the new task, and that’s going to be a tall one tomorrow. But I’ve got faith we can make the most of it.”
Sunday’s 400-mile race marks the beginning of the three-race Round of 8, a high-stakes showdown that will determine the final four drivers fighting for glory at Phoenix Raceway on November 10. And if Blaney is going to defend his crown, he’ll have to do it the hard way—starting from the back and racing against the odds at Las Vegas.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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