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Ryan Blaney said he “had a hand” in the crash that ended his day at Talladega Superspeedway, a 38th-place finish that left him sixth in the Chase standings, 107 points behind Kyle Larson, with two races left.
Blaney came into Sunday’s YellaWood 500 fifth in points, 40 behind Larson. He leaves needing to make up 107 points at Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Blaney: ‘It hurts us a lot’
The 12-car crash on Lap 132 started when Blaney and teammate Joey Logano checked up at the front of the pack and Bubba Wallace got into the back of Blaney. It collected five Chase drivers, including Blaney, Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick.
“We were just racing hard three-wide and protecting and probably didn’t make a very good move,” Blaney said. “It hurts us a lot, so we’ll have to see what we can do next week.”
Blaney said the crash was not Logano’s fault. “We were both trying to protect it. Both of us didn’t time it very good and unfortunately wrecked folks. I feel like I had a hand in kind of being aggressive there, but it’s a shame guys got tore up,” he said. “Just trying to protect lanes and kind of got to the top lane and got big shoves. I don’t know. Everyone just pushing hard and things kind of got squirrely.”
The points picture
Larson won the race and leads the Chase by 73 points over Denny Hamlin. Christopher Bell is 74 back, Chase Briscoe 79, Logano 100 and Blaney 107. Logano, Blaney’s Team Penske teammate, won Stage 2 but flipped in the late crash and finished 34th.
Blaney would need a big points swing in the last two races, and trouble for Larson and the four drivers between them, to win his second Cup title. He won the championship in 2023.
Martinsville is one of his best tracks
Blaney won the fall Martinsville race in 2023 and 2024 and finished second there last October. He was sixth in the spring race in March. He also finished second at Phoenix Raceway on October 18, the last flat track the series raced on.
The Xfinity 500 at Martinsville is Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. ET on NBC. The season ends November 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida.
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