Ryan Blaney was on top of the world at Homestead Sunday—until, quite suddenly, he wasn’t.
The No. 12 Team Penske driver rolled off sixth, but by lap 9, it was obvious: Ryan Blaney was not here to mess around. He grabbed the lead with the kind of confidence that says, “Gentlemen, this is my race, and you’re all just trying to keep up.” And keep up they did not. Blaney stretched his lead to nearly seven seconds at one point, which in NASCAR terms is the equivalent of lapping everyone but the pace car. Stage 1? Easy win. A walk in the park. A Sunday drive—except at 180 mph.
The race, for the most part, was shaping up to be a game of strategy. Green flag pit stops dictated the order, but through it all, Blaney remained a threat. He finished third in Stage 2, still well within striking distance.
Then came the final stage. Bubba Wallace took the lead as things shuffled around. Blaney, momentarily buried in traffic, began clawing his way forward with the patience of a lion stalking its prey. Up ahead, Kyle Larson was doing his best to pry the lead from Wallace, but Wallace wasn’t budging. Larson took his shot on lap 198, diving in for the pass. But Wallace, running the high line like his life depended on it, slammed the door shut. That brief battle allowed Blaney to creep ever closer—now lurking, waiting to pounce.
Then, lap 209 happened.
Coming out of Turn 4, Blaney’s Ford suddenly transformed from a dominant race car into a very expensive smoke machine. White smoke billowed from the back of the No. 12, flames licking out of the exhaust pipes as the engine self-destructed in real-time. It was violent. It was spectacular. It was devastating.
“You got to be shitting me…” Blaney groaned over the team radio, voicing what everyone watching was already thinking.
And just like that, after leading a race-high 124 laps, Blaney was climbing out of a dead car. A sure victory ripped from his grasp. But wait—there’s more! As if the heartbreak of a blown motor wasn’t enough, this was also his third consecutive DNF: the first time he has ever had 3 straight DNFs in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“I didn’t have any warning,” Blaney said, still trying to process what had just happened. “It just laid over when I got back to wide-open down the front, and that was all she wrote. It just stinks.”
Stinks is an understatement. This made three straight races during Homestead-Miami weekend where the most dominant driver didn’t win. On Friday, Corey Heim led the most laps in the Truck Series race before suffering a late-race mechanical failure, handing the victory to Kyle Larson. Then on Saturday, Larson himself fell victim, leading the most laps in the Xfinity race only to get snookered on an overtime restart.
If there’s any silver lining for Blaney, it’s that at least his soul-crushing disappointment didn’t come in the final laps.
“We’ll keep our heads up,” Blaney said, trying to rally. “It’s just one of those things where it’s not really going our way right now, but the good news is we’re bringing fast cars, and that’s all you can ask for. We’ll keep on moving.”
And he’s right. Speed isn’t the problem. Luck, however, seems to be laughing in his face.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" 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, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.