Ryan Blaneys dominant Homestead showing ends in smoke
03/23/2025 08:33 PM
For the second consecutive week at an intermediate track, Ryan Blaney, arguably, had the best car. For the second consecutive week the No. 12 team wasn‘t able to capitalize on that potential.
After qualifying sixth on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Blaney rocketed to the lead early in the opening stage. Prior to a caution flying within the final 10 laps of the stage, the No. 12 Ford checked out to a lead of nearly nine seconds.
Blaney stayed in command on the restart, becoming only the second driver this season to win multiple stages. Much was the same during Stage 2, though the field tightened the gap to the No. 12 car. As the laps wound down during a long green-flag run in the second stage, Blaney had trouble getting by Ford driver Todd Gilliland and Ross Chastain, allowing Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, both of whom were on fresher tires, to pass him. Yet Blaney chalked up another eight stage points.
The only mistake for the No. 12 team throughout the race came during its stage break pit stop, dropping six positions to ninth. When Chase Elliott exited his pit stall, he made slight contact with Blaney‘s left-front fender. When the race resumed, however, Blaney charged forward immediately, reaching third.
Then, his day all went up in smoke — literally — on Lap 208 after leading a race-high 124 laps. Running behind Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson, the No. 12 Ford had smoke billowing from it, having among the biggest engine failures in the Next Gen era. Dating back to Phoenix Raceway, Blaney has had two engine failures in the last three races.
"I didn‘t have any warning," Blaney told Fox Sports of his engine failure. "It just laid over when I got back to wide-open down the front and that was all she wrote. It just stinks. We led a lot of laps. We lost a little bit of track position there with some stuff on pit road, but got back to third and it was a great race between me and Bubba and Larson. I‘m sure Denny was gonna get back into it.
"It was gonna be a heck of a battle the last 60 laps or so, but it just didn‘t really work out for us. We‘ll continue to keep fighting."
Throw in the No. 12 team‘s early departure from the 400-miler at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend after making up two laps and Blaney has three consecutive DNFs for the first time in his Cup career (348 starts).
"I appreciate the 12 guys for just giving me a hot rod," Blaney added. "It was an incredibly, incredibly fast race car today. We‘ll keep our heads up. It‘s just one of those things where it‘s not really going our way right now, but the good news is we‘re bringing fast cars and that‘s all you can ask for."
Through six races this season, Blaney has led 148 laps, ranking third in the series. He trails his two Team Penske teammates Joey Logano (247) and Austin Cindric (159). In the first month-and-a-half of the season, the three-car powerhouse team has combined to lead 554 laps, but has yet to reach Victory Lane. Blaney is the highest-ranked Penske driver in the regular-season championship battle in 10th, but he is tied with William Byron for the most stage points in the series (69).
