WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.: Ryan Blaney’s chances to recover from a poor qualifying effort for Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen didn’t even last a lap after the Team Penske driver was collected in a Lap 1 accident, which eliminated him from the 90-lap race.
As the race entered its first lap, Corey LaJoie made contact with Kyle Busch in the Bus Stop at Watkins Glen, sending Busch around and clipping Playoff driver Christopher Bell in the process.
The field scattered trying to avoid the uncontrollable cars of Bell and Busch, but in the process, Blaney, also trying to take evasive action, was squeezed into the guard rail by another competitor, which heavily damaged his No. 12 Pennzoil Ford Mustang.
Unable to drive his car back to pit road for repair, Blaney received a tow back to pit lane from the track’s safety team. NASCAR deemed the assist for Blaney as being involved in the accident and listed him out of the race by the series’ damaged vehicle policy.
After climbing from his car in the garage area, an agitated Blaney sounded off at NASCAR’s decision to park him for the rest of the day.
“Give us a chance to fix it, how are they going to dictate if we’re done or not?” Blaney said on the USA television broadcast.
“They have no idea the damage. They said because I couldn’t drive it back to the pit box, we’re done, but if you have four flats, you get towed back to the pit box, you can’t drive it back.
“So, I don’t know what’s going on, why they won’t even give us a shot to work on it, but I don’t agree with it.”
When asked to describe how he became a victim in the Lap 1 incident, Blaney didn’t have enough time to comprehend the chaos.
“I don’t even know what happened honestly, stacked up, I caught someone on the left front and it completely broke the steering arm,” explained Blaney who was credited with a 38th place last lap finish.
“I don’t know if we could have fixed it but that’s the frustrating part, just don’t even give us a chance you just end our day and you’re not letting us get to look at it before it’s in the garage? That just, stinks.”
The opening lap incident also collected Playoff drivers Bell, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski, but they were able to continue.
Blaney entered the day with a comfortable 33-point cushion above the cutline but heads to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Sept. 21 just 21 points above the 12th and final cutoff spot.
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
