Ryan Blaney managed to tally a top 10 in the Cook Out Southern 500. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Ryan Blaney and his No. 12 Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford Mustang team dealt with more changes than David Bowie’s hit tune from 1971.
Ahead of last Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Blaney entered the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with a quiet confidence. Starting from the fourth position, it seemed like the 29-year-old Team Penske driver had a good chance to challenge for the lead.
In the early going, the Hartford Township, Ohio native had a good performance, tallying a fifth place result in Stage 1. However, it became a battle of wills between Blaney’s No. 12 car and the driver and pit crew.
As the sun set over the 1.366-mile egg shaped track, the once fast, adjustable Ford Mustang became a nuisance. The weather sensitive, abrasive track surface wreaked havoc on Blaney and crew chief Jonathan Hassler with finding a neutral, balanced car.
Falling to a seventh place finish in Stage 2, it was a struggle from there. Despite the frustrating evening experiences, Blaney kept after it as Playoff contenders fell by the wayside.
Nevertheless, Blaney can probably empathize with those wearing braces, especially after a dreadful appointment to tighten them to help with dental alignment.
Much like those enduring orthodontic pain, Blaney mustered a decent outcome, tallying a ninth place finish for a total of 38 points, tied for fourth most points in the race.
A tight handling car left Blaney and his No. 12 team flummoxed. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
“This race is such a weird race,” Blaney said. “It just goes through so many swings throughout the day and night. You start off the race in the full sun and it’s hot and by the end of the second stage it’s all night time and the track temp changes.
“This place is really tricky with how the track changes and it went the complete opposite way of what we thought it was gonna go, so that kind of threw us for a little bit of a loop.”
Particularly, Blaney considered the strangeness with the different tire changing tactics. Fresh tires typically prevail at Darlington.
In this case, this jumbled up the scoring order for the No. 12 team when they mounted a late race charge.
“It was just a weird pit strategy race,” he said. “You usually don’t get that here, but just the way the cautions fell. There was a group of people with two laps on their tires and then split and it was kind of a wacky race.
“Luckily, we were able to get back to ninth. It was a hard-fought battle, for sure. I’m proud of the effort and it was a decent day on points.”
Despite the struggles, it was a better Sunday night for Blaney than some of his title rival contenders. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
Following last Sunday night’s crown jewel race, Blaney ranks ninth, 29 points behind leader William Byron. With a 16 point margin over 13th place Bubba Wallace, Blaney sought for answers to have a better race at Darlington and the upcoming Playoffs stops at Kansas and Bristol.
“It kind of happened really quickly at the end of Stage 2,” Blaney said. “We adjusted for it a little bit, but didn’t think it was gonna be that drastic. It was just doing massive swings. It was such a big swing that I thought something was wrong.
“I’ll be curious to look at it because I’ve never had one like that where one run and, boom, you’re like a 10 tight, so that was kind of odd. It was good to overcome that. You throw the kitchen sink at it to try to get it to work somewhat reasonable and get an OK finish.”
