Last Sunday, Ryan Blaney spent a nerve-wracking three-and-a-half hours coming to terms with the fact that he was out of a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
The combination of a massive pileup with 21 laps to go and unrelenting rain pouring down at Daytona Int’l Speedway resulted in the red flag being waved. From there, the battered cars were covered on pit lane and the drivers were forced to wait until NASCAR officials either ended the race or directed the drivers to get back behind the wheel.
In those minutes between, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford was hovering just outside of the 16th place cutoff spot for the playoffs.
This was due to a Stage 1 crash Blaney was involved in, namely with Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin. There was significant damage to the right-front end of the car, likewise injuring Blaney’s chance at the playoffs.
As Stage 1 reached a close, Blaney spent six minutes in pit lane as his crew replaced the right tires and patched up what they could. Luckily, the Ford Mustang held together as Blaney matched minimum speed on the final lap and beat the DVP clock.
“It was an interesting situation. I was able to run wide-open, you just hope you’re fast enough and you’re not draggy and damaged enough to where you won’t make minimum speed. It was weird,” Blaney said.
Things were looking up. Flash forward to NASCAR’s call to end the red flag and bring drivers back to their cars, Blaney was looking at his last shot at the playoffs.
“I had a lot of pride in my guys, who worked their butts off on fixing that thing, because it probably shouldn’t have been fixable to where it would drive,” Blaney said. “That’s why you stay in the game.”
Blaney’s rival for the final playoff spot, Martin Truex Jr., failed to secure a spot in the playoffs after finishing eighth. It was Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, the winner of the race at Daytona, who earned a playoff position, helping keep Truex on the outside looking in.
Blaney scraped into the playoffs with a 15th-place result at Daytona and is the seventh seed for the Cup Series playoffs.
“That was definitely a tough last month racing the No. 19 [Truex] real hard. You’ve got really just one guy you’re trying to get into to get the final spot to set yourself up for 10 weeks,” Blaney said. “Now that we’ve accomplished that goal, it feels like a little bit of fresh air.”
Despite the drama at Daytona, it’s been a pleasant time for the Team Penske driver as he resets for the playoffs.
He’s more than ready to transition from focusing on beating Truex week-in and week-out. Instead, a field of the finest 15 drivers in the Cup Series will be waiting for him at Darlington Raceway this weekend.
“It was kind of like a ride-or-die kind of thing between me and Martin to try to get in, and now it’s almost the same thing in some areas,” Blaney said.
Backed by a number of strong finishes and a safety net of bonus points that he accrued earlier in the season, Blaney has full confidence in his team’s capabilities and his own chances to win the title.
One minor drawback is that his Team Penske entry is not in the running for the owner’s championship, but according to Blaney, that doesn’t matter much.
The driver remains motivated by one thing — the Cup Series trophy.
“That’s all I really care about,” he said. “My only regret on that is that the No. 12 car isn’t in for Roger [Penske], but he was just happy to get me in as a driver.”
Historically, the seventh seed position that Blaney has secured in the playoffs has been the lowest seed to ever come back and win the title. He’s certainly not out of it — he thinks “we can definitely do it” — and perhaps his lesson at Daytona last week will take him all the way to the championship.
“It’s just all about trying to stay in the game,” Blaney said. “You never know what can change.”