(Photo: Blake Ulino | The Podium Finish)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — When Ryan Blaney crashed on Lap 32 of Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, his playoff hopes looked grim. His team patched together his No. 12 Ford Mustang well enough to log laps, but Blaney would need some help if he wanted any chance to make the playoffs.
As the race progressed, crashes took out many drivers and Blaney gained several positions by unlapping himself to them.
On Lap 103, Martin Truex Jr. suffered damage in a crash triggered by Michael McDowell and Tyler Reddick. The team repaired the damage and he continued.
With 21 laps to go, rain quickly set in over Daytona and a crash broke out in Turn 1 before a caution was called. Nearly everyone remaining suffered damage, but Truex escaped behind eventual race winner Austin Dillon.
Truex was scored in fourth, but when the race turned green with 16 to go, Truex slowly dropped back as he struggled to maintain pace with his damage. Truex finished eighth, but it wasn’t enough as Blaney limped across 15th to transfer into the playoffs.
“We had to battle through adversity all day, but props to the whole 12 group for continuing to work on it and fix it and just trying to keep it in the game,” Blaney said. “After that wreck everything was kind of out of our hands and we were just trying to do the best we could to try and complete all the laps. You never know what can happen, so props to them. Fortunately, we were able to gain some points there at the end and locked us in. It was definitely nerve-racking, but a lot of props to the 12 team.
“We couldn’t keep up with the draft for a while because we just had so much damage. By the time we got five or six laps down you try to stay optimistic about these things. It’s easy to kind of get down on it and you just try to stay positive.
“I wasn’t racing for position. You just hope that everything gets wild and it looks like the 19 kind of got shucked out there and lost some spots and wasn’t able to get them back. There really wasn’t anything I could do. You’re just riding around trying to complete the laps and whatever happens happens. It’s out of your control.
Because injured Kurt Busch pulled his playoff waiver on Thursday, two playoff spots were still available. If there was a new winner at Daytona, just one driver could transfer on points. If there wasn’t a new winner, both Blaney and Truex would advance.
Since Dillon won the race, only one driver transferred. Blaney finished three points above Truex to secure the final spot, while Truex will miss out on the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
(Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
“We just had too much damage at the end,” Truex said. “We had a good spot on the restart and we got a good restart. We got the 2 (Austin Cindric) up front, which is what we were trying to do, but just couldn’t keep up. Just too much damage. It’s a shame. We knew it was going to be tough with so many cars out of the race and the distance between me and the 12 (Ryan Blaney). It was going to be hard to hang on to fourth or better with a car that torn up.
“I was wide open the whole last run there. It’s a shame, it stinks, but just too much damage to do what we needed to do.”
Blaney finished the regular season third in driver’s points, which transfers to the No. 7 seed on the playoff grid. He earned five playoff points from five stage wins, as well as eight playoff points for his points position.
The playoffs start next weekend with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, followed by Kansas Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway. Blaney is winless at all three tracks but he has his eyes set on changing that in pursuit of his first championship.
“It’s been a good year for us, but the wins haven’t come,” Blaney said. “I feel like we can be a big threat in the playoffs, it’s just a matter of putting races together. It’s been a good year, but a great year would be wins and I feel like this team can do it if we just continue to do what we know and we improve on the things that we can get better at.”
