Ryan Blaney was livid after unlucky finish at Indy

Mar 16, 2024; Bristol, Tennessee, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney (12) before practice for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Ryan Blaney was seething Sunday after a third-place finish at the Brickyard 400 that more or less came down to terrible luck.

Blaney was unhappy after a series of events went against him late in Sunday’s race. Leader Brad Keselowski ran out of gas and had to pit just before the green flag that began the final overtime lap of the race. Blaney was second at the time and had subsequently chosen to be in the outside lane for the restart, not wanting to get caught behind Keselowski if Keselowski ran out of fuel.

The timing, however, meant that everyone on Keselowski’s inside lane moved up, giving eventual winner Kyle Larson the inside track for the overtime restart. Blaney obviously would have chosen to restart behind Keselowski had he known that Keselowski would not even make it to the green flag.

Blaney was livid at the time, telling his crew that NASCAR “gave” the race to Larson, whom he derided as the “f—ing golden boy.”

After the race, Blaney was still furious, but admitted the finish was down to bad luck more than anything else.

“I’m pissed. I told my guys, I’m ticked off, but I don’t know who to be ticked off at,” Blaney said. “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 the perfect spot to win and just that weird circumstance, it just benefitted him and it just killed our race, any chance for us to win. That’s what I’m upset about. I’m not mad at anybody. That’s just lady luck.”

One could certainly argue that NASCAR should have allowed drivers to re-choose their lanes after Keselowski went to pit. Ultimately, though, that is not what happened.

Fortunately, Blaney is locked in for the playoffs. He has already been a winner twice this year, including on one particularly memorable occasion last month.

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