Ryan Blaney knows he has a problem. And with just two races remaining in NASCAR’s Chase, the defending 2023 champion’s path to another title suddenly looks about as inviting as a trip through the Talladega infield at 190 mph.
Blaney’s championship hopes took a serious hit Sunday when he was caught up in a 12-car wreck during the closing laps of Stage 2 in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. The No. 12 Team Penske Ford driver was running three-wide on the backstretch when he checked up, moved from the middle lane to the high lane and made contact with Bubba Wallace. What followed was the sort of automotive demolition derby that makes Talladega famous and championship contenders reach for the nearest bottle of antacid.
Eight drivers still eligible for the title were involved in the wreck, including Blaney, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suárez and Ryan Preece. Denny Hamlin, another Chase contender, also suffered front-end damage.
For Blaney, the consequences could hardly have come at a worse time. With Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway remaining on the schedule, there is precious little time to recover from a Sunday afternoon that turned his championship campaign into a salvage operation.
Blaney wasn’t interested in pointing fingers afterward, taking responsibility for his part in the incident.
“We were just racing hard three-wide and protecting and probably didn’t make a very good move,” he said.
Asked about Joey Logano’s role in the incident, Blaney defended his Team Penske teammate.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Blaney said. “We were both trying to protect it. Both of us didn’t time it very good and unfortunately wrecked folks. I feel like I had a hand in kind of being aggressive there, but it’s a shame guys got tore up.”
That sort of accountability is admirable. Unfortunately, NASCAR does not award championship points for good manners, and Blaney cannot talk his way out of the damage to his title hopes.
Asked directly what the wreck meant for his chances of winning the championship, Blaney offered a blunt assessment.
“It’s on life support,” he said. “That’s for sure, but you never know. It definitely doesn’t help. That’s something we couldn’t afford to have today and unfortunately it happened, so we’ll just have to go show up next week and try to do the best we can.”
The good news, if there is any, is that Blaney hasn’t thrown in the towel. He said he feels good about heading to Martinsville, although he acknowledged he would have a better idea of where things stand after Saturday’s on-track activity.
The bad news is that the margin for error has all but disappeared. With only two races left, Blaney needs to make the most of every opportunity while hoping the championship contenders around him have their own problems.
Life support, then. Not a funeral just yet. But Blaney and the No. 12 team may need a little more than clean air and good intentions to keep their championship hopes breathing.
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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