AVONDALE, Ariz: NASCAR Cup Series points leader Ryan Blaney saw his end day in a restart accident early in Sunday’s Fanshield 500 at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway.
On a Lap 64 restart, Denny Hamlin who was running inside the top-five lost control of his race car and hit Brad Keselowski, the two cars spun in front of Blaney, collecting him in the process.
Blaney’s No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang tagged the outside wall. He was able to drive his mangled Team Penske Ford back to pit road but after a diagnosis from his team, the damage was deemed terminal and his race was over at 65 laps.
Blaney initially said he wasn’t sure what happened ahead of him.
“From the car, I couldn’t really see,” explained Blaney who signed a multi-year with Team Penske this week. “A couple of us were three-wide. I was happy to be on the top. I thought we were going to roll the top pretty good through three and four there. It looks like the 11 (Denny Hamlin) tried to send it in there below the 2 (Brad Keselowski) and got loose and hit him and then
overcorrected and got us.
“We got up in the dirt and we just ran right into the fence. Just an innocent bystander there. It sucks to have it end so early like that and have that happen so early in the race. I do really hate it for Menards and Tarkett and Ford”
Before the crash, Blaney was running inside the top-10 and although they were struggling with the handling of his race car, crew chief Todd Gordon took a swing at adjustments during the first caution of the race – moments before Blaney’s incident.
Running into trouble so early in the run, Blaney never got a chance to see if the adjustments worked.
“We didn’t even have a chance to work on our car,” sounded Blaney. “We weren’t great the first run, but we made a big swing at it and we don’t know how that change was. It stinks when you are taken out like that.
“We will just go on to Atlanta and see what we can do.”
Blaney’s 37th place finish dropped him from first to sixth in the championship standings heading to next Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
