Ryan Blaney was a dominant pressure all through the NASCAR Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, main most race laps — 124 of a attainable 267 — and profitable the opening stage.
The Group Penske driver was cruising in third place in the course of the ultimate stage of the race, simply behind Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace as they battled for the race lead. However instantly, a large plume of white smoke billowed out the again of his No. 12 Ford Mustang, signalling a catastrophic engine failure.
Blaney’s race was over simply 60 laps shy of the end, inserting thirty sixth of the unique 37 starters.
Ryan Blaney, Group Penske Ford
“I didn’t have any warning,” mentioned Blaney afterwards. “It simply laid over once I received again to wide-open down the entrance, and that was all she wrote. It simply stinks. We had a very quick Ford Mustang. We led plenty of laps. We misplaced somewhat little bit of monitor place there with some stuff on pit street, however received again to 3rd and it was an incredible race between me and Bubba and Larson. I’m certain Denny [Hamlin] was gonna get again into it.
“It was gonna be a heck of a battle the final 60 laps or so, however it simply didn’t actually work out for us. We’ll proceed to maintain combating. I recognize the 12 guys for simply giving me a sizzling rod. It was an extremely, extremely quick race automotive right now. We’ll preserve our heads up. It’s simply a kind of issues the place it’s probably not going our method proper now, however the excellent news is we’re bringing quick vehicles, and that’s all you’ll be able to ask for. We’ll carry on transferring.”
Unusually, this is not Blaney’s first engine blowup this yr — a failure that has change into more and more uncommon in trendy NASCAR. Two weeks in the past at Phoenix, an identical engine challenge ended his day. A crash at Las Vegas final weekend implies that Blaney now has a stretch of three consecutive DNFs after simply six races.
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