INDIANAPOLIS — Ryan Blaney doesn’t know who to blame for what happened. Hendrick Motorsports leadership simply noted no rules were broken.
When Sunday’s Brickyard 400 entered overtime, Blaney was on the outside of the lead row as Brad Keselowski was first and chose the inside position. NASCAR 2021 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson was in third place on the inside of the second row.
Blaney knew Keselowski would have to pit soon, because he and his Team Penske crew pitted eight laps before Keselowski, and Blaney’s No. 12 car was low on fuel.
But when Keselowski pitted moments before the leaders drove through the green flag, Larson was able to take the inside and the lead. A cluster behind the leaders caused a wreck and a restart, but Blaney’s chance of victory had slipped away.
“That’s (expletive) (expletive),” Blaney said on his radio. “No (expletive) way. There is no (expletive) way he gets to jump up a row and I get (expletive) screwed because someone ran out of gas. That’s (expletive) (expletive) NASCAR and you (expletive) know it and something better change. … They just gave it to him.”
Brickyard 400 results: Kyle Larson outlasts two overtimes to capture Brickyard 400 win, promises Indy 500 return
After another restart, Larson comfortably won the race in overtime while Blaney finished third behind Tyler Reddick.
“I was going to choose behind (Keselowski) no matter what lane he took,” Larson said. “Just in hopes that he would run out before we got to the restart zone. And I was trying to pay attention to him … just to see if there was any bit of stumble.
“And then, yeah, he just ducked off onto pit road and I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is going exactly how we had kind of hoped and thought about.’”
Blaney — who won last year’s Cup Series — felt he should’ve won at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time in his career. Instead, he comes away with a third-place finish because a crash and caution caused Keselowski to pit before the restart even began.
“(Keselowski) runs out before pit road, pulls in and Larson gets promoted to the bottom,” Blaney said trackside after the checkered flag. “Then the race is over now, I can’t hang on the top. My only reason for choosing the top is the 6 (Keselowski) is gonna run out of gas. … So just disappointed at that, I mean that just stinks. That’s just dumb luck. We did everything right to win and (Larson) caught a break pretty good.”
A win would’ve been Blaney’s second straight after winning The Great American Gateway 400 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., last Sunday. It would’ve been Blaney’s third win of the season, tying Larson and three other drivers for the most in 2024.
Larson — who came in 18th in the Indianapolis 500 — now has four wins this NASCAR season and has jumped Chase Elliot for the top spot in the standings. Blaney is fifth in the Cup standings.
“(Inside position) was really the preferred front-row spot,” said Jeff Gordon, vice president of Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports team and five-time Brickyard 400 champion. “If you could map it out or plan it out, that’s exactly the way you want it to plan out because Blaney would’ve loved to have had the inside.”
Blaney wasn’t mad at anybody in particular — after he calmed down — for what happened in overtime. He just feels he and his crew got an unfortunate break.
“I’m pissed,” Blaney said. “I told my guys I’m ticked off, but I don’t know who to be ticked off at. Like, there’s no one to be ticked off at. It’s just racing luck. The break that (Larson) got — and the hardship that we got right there with that happening at that time — just killed our race. We put ourselves in a perfect spot to win and that weird circumstance benefited him and just killed our race.”
Although no NASCAR rules were violated in the ordeal, Blaney wished the situation would’ve been handled differently. He thinks that as Keselowski slowed before passing the start/finish line, the green flag could’ve been waved off with the cars being re-racked from there.
“You promote the third-place guy before the second-place guy,” Blaney said on the USA broadcast. “It’s dumb luck. That’s a heartbreaker. We did everything right today and got unlucky. Not going to sleep very good tonight, I can tell you that.”
Larson added: “If I was in his position, maybe (I’d want to re-rack the cars). The way the rule is written, it’s not (an option).”
Source link : https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/motor/2024/07/21/hendrick-motorsports-ryan-blaney-angry-with-ending-of-brickyard-400/74493479007/
Author :
Publish date : 2024-07-22 00:31:23
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
