Ryan Blaney could taste it. The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champ knew he was close to winning his first Brickyard 400, and more impressively, securing his third win in the last half-dozen races. He lined up on the outside of Row 1 in the first overtime restart with former Penske teammate Brad Keselowski to his inside — until he wasn’t.
The No. 6 RFK Racing car, which had pitted 10 laps earlier than most of the leaders, stumbled going to the green because it had run out of fuel and the 2012 champ unexpectedly turned left, following the pace car down pit road. Kyle Larson, who was on the inside of Row 2, pulled forward into the vacated spot as the two cars crossed the start-finish line and barreled down toward Turn 1.
Larson surged out into the lead before a massive pileup started back in the field. Caution. Moments after the yellow, an upset Blaney lit up the No. 12 team radio angry about NASCAR’s indecision on the restart.
“That’s [expletive] [expletive]! There’s no [expletive] way that he gets to jump up a row and I get [expletive],” the 29-year-old driver said of Larson’s move. “Because someone runs out of gas. That’s [expletive] [expletive] NASCAR, and you [expletive] know it. Y’all better change something.”
A few moments later after one of Blaney’s crew suggested that the Hendrick Motorsports driver might have jumped the start, the reigning Cup champ didn’t want to hear about it.
“I don’t give a [expletive]. That’s [expletive] [expletive],” he said. “There’s no way they should have let that go green. That’s ridiculous. You just gave it to them.”
“It ain’t over,” spotter Tim Fedewa tried to assure his driver.
“It’s [expletive] over,” Blaney said. “I’m on the top (outside lane). You’re not gonna win from the top. Give it to [expletive] golden boy. Son of a [expletive].”
Ryan Blaney Finishes Third Behind Larson in Controversial Finish
After a 17-minute red-flag delay, the cars reset and did it again. In that second overtime restart, Larson once again pulled out into the lead after the first couple of turns except it wasn’t the No. 12 who was his closest pursuer, but the No. 45 of Tyler Reddick. Ryan Blaney dropped to third.
However, before the cars made a complete lap around the 2.5-mile circuit, Ryan Preece crashed. It was apparent the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing car wasn’t going anywhere. He was beached. In other words, NASCAR should have thrown a caution before the No. 5 crossed the finish line for the white-flag lap and re-racked for another overtime. That didn’t happen.
Instead, moments after Larson led the field past the white, officials put out the caution. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was declared the winner.
NASCAR’s hesitation to throw the yellow after it was obvious Preece wasn’t going to make it back to pit road unsurprisingly produced conspiracy theories, and ironically, only gave more credibility to Blaney’s comment minutes before.
Kyle Larson Responds to Ryan Blaney Comment
With Larson winning the race, he became the first driver in the Cup Series to win four times in 2024. The No. 5 pilot is clearly one of the favorites heading into the playoffs and Blaney will likely be one of his toughest competitors. The HMS driver made a July 22 appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and addressed the remarks of the Team Penske driver.
“No, it’s funny,” Larson said. “He’s obviously a very passionate racer and he gets very fired up on the radio when he’s upset, but I don’t hold anything — I don’t hold that comment against him at all. I thought it was pretty funny. And honestly, I would have been upset just as much as he was if roles were reversed and who knows I might’ve called him the golden boy.
“So, it’s just tough. I think they were put in a little bit of a tough situation and the way the rule is currently that’s how it played out is how it played out legally. So I’m not saying that they can’t look at it in the future and fix it, but for how the rule was written yesterday, it just worked out in our favor.”
And produced a new nickname.
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