(Photo: Erik Smith | The Podium Finish)
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Ryan Blaney left Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a sixth-place finish sitting 17 points below the cutline.
Then he got disqualified for a left-front shock violation, eradicating his finish and points position.
Twenty-four hours later, he had all of it back after NASCAR deemed they made a mistake with the damper template used during the inspection process.
“We talked about it internally Monday morning as a group before we went to NASCAR and was able to talk to them,” Blaney said in a media availability Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “I appreciate NASCAR for being receptive to it and talking with us Monday and meeting with the parts at their R&D Center and understanding what the disconnect was between pre-race and post-race. That is a sealed part, so. Elton Sawyer and Brad Moran were really great to us at being understanding and understanding that there was an issue there with the process and they were able to fix it. A lot of emotions but it was nice that it ended up, I think, as it should have.
“When I heard about all the parts and pieces before they went to NASCAR, I felt like maybe they would be able to hear our case and work with us and figure out where was this disconnect. Luckily it was. I wouldn’t say I was confident or unconfident, I was just hoping to see what happens.
Instead of a likely must-win situation at either Homestead or Martinsville Speedway, Blaney has a pathway toward making the Championship 4 on points.
“I flew on someone else’s plane and right when I turned my wifi on, that was the first text I got, that we got DQ’d. So then it was like, ‘Okay, we have to win one of the next two weeks.’ Then when it got rescinded on Monday night, it was just about that it would still be hard to make it but it isn’t a must-win now. So it gives you a little more hope.”
Blaney has 14 playoff points from two wins and four stage victories, but his path to Phoenix still isn’t easy. He won the Coca-Cola 600 in May and punched his ticket to the Round of 8 with a narrow victory at Talladega Superspeedway. Still, he’s seventh in points, pacing just Chris Buescher and trailing Tyler Reddick by one.
Across the board, Ford has battled performance struggles in 2023, especially at intermediate-sized tracks. Outside of his Charlotte win, Blaney hasn’t bucked that trend. In the two intermediates before Las Vegas, he recorded finishes of 12th at Kansas Speedway and 28th at Texas Motor Speedway. While he’ll start 10th at Homestead, the 29-year-old from High Point, North Carolina has just one top 10 in eight starts in Southern Florida.
The quickest line — and also the riskiest — is up against the wall.
(Photo: Erik Smith | The Podium Finish)
“If we were still 56 points back I would be glued to [the wall],” Blaney said. “During practice and during the race, I would be glued to the damn thing. Now it just depends. You understand what spot you are in. If you are having a good day and coming down to the end of the race or so, maybe you don’t plant it on the fence. Maybe you have gotten a good amount of points and running top five, you are assessing risk at that point.
“I am fairly confident though and I am more about getting my car working to what I need it to do to run up on that fence. A couple of guys that are super good at it will work their driving style around that to be able to run the fence. Everyone is a little different. I think you have to be good at it because there is obviously speed up there but you have to be good off of it because if everyone is running the fence you have to go somewhere and pass them somewhere.”
Blaney also has nine top 10s in 15 starts at Martinsville, which closes the Round of 8 next week as the penultimate race of the season.
“It could be wild. I think that race always gets exciting. Last year’s race was incredibly exciting, the ending of it,” Blaney explained. “I think Martinsville being the last cut-off race is more exciting than when it was the first one of the Round of 8. I think it puts on a great show regardless and you will have some guys that need a win when they get there or guys who are a handful of points out.
“It is going to be wild. This one will be just as crazy because those races always are.”
Sunday’s 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 is set for 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Kyle Larson, who locked into the Championship 4 with a win at Las Vegas, is the defending winner. Martin Truex Jr. is on the pole.
