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Ryan Blaney Frustrated With NASCAR After He’s Involved In Lap 1 Wreck At Watkins Glen

September 15, 2024  ·
  John Trent

Defending NASCAR Cup Series Champion Ryan Blaney expressed his frustration with NASCAR following a Lap 1 wreck at Watkins Glen.

Ryan Blaney via Bob Pockrass on X

The wreck happened when Corey LaJoie went off the track going through the bus stop. When he came back onto the track he made contact with Kyle Busch’s left rear and sent Busch spinning around at the exit of the bus stop.

With Busch spinning and coming to a stop facing the wrong direction in the middle of the exit of the bus stop, chaos ensued behind him with Denny Hamlin, Zane Smith and others taking evasive action. Blaney appeared to avoid most of it, but received contact from Brad Keselowski who quickly cut his car back to the right to avoid Busch.

Blaney was unable to drive his car back to the pit area and had to be towed and was thus eliminated from the race.

Reporter Noah Lewis reported that Blaney exclaimed, “Jesus f***ing Christ” after they dropped the front of the car in the garage area. He also reportedly “let out a frustrated laugh” when he was informed he had been eliminated from the race.

As for what the issue was, Fox NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass shared it was “an issue with the steering column.”

After exiting his car, Blaney spoke to NBC Sports, “Give us a chance to fix it. How are they going to dictate that we’re done or not? They have no idea the damage. They said ’cause 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. And I don’t even know what happened, honestly. I stacked up and I caught someone in the left front and it completely broke the steering arm. I don’t know if we could’ve fixed it.”

“But yea that’s the frustrating part, just don’t even give us a chance. You just end our day without us even getting to look at it before it’s in the garage. That just stinks.”

Speaking with Pockrass, Blaney reiterated, “At least let us look at it. They are going to make the judgement on how it is and tow you back to the garage and don’t even let you get a chance to look at it on pit road and fix it. That’s not right. They said because I couldn’t drive it back then they take you to garage. Well, you can’t drive back on four flat tires and they take you to the pit box, so where’s the rule? And why don’t you let us go look at it. You might have a shot at fixing it and getting back out there. You never know.”

“That’s what I was upset with. You gotta give us a chance to look at it, not just tell us that we’re done. But we have no say in the matter,” he concluded.

What do you make of Blaney’s comments?

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Author: John Trent