By Tim Packman
LAS VEGAS – With five laps remaining in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the yellow No. 12 Pennzoil Ford of Ryan Blaney was looking good for victory.
When the race ended, there was, indeed, a yellow Pennzoil Ford in Victory Lane…just not his.
Team Penske teammate Joey Logano prevailed through a wild restart with two laps remaining as cars got together in the trioval bringing out the caution AFTER the white flag was displayed. Per the NASCAR rule books, once the white is waved, the next flag shown finishes the race.
While on Penske team was happy, the driver of the other let his feelings be known.
“It was just a crappy situation,” an obviously frustrated Blaney said afterwards. “We fought our butts off to get the lead there. We get it, and had a good shot to hold off the 88 (Alex Bowman). I thought we could have won once we got in the clean air.
“Our car was pretty decent. The caution came out, we pitted and some guys didn’t. Some guys took two (tires).”
Blaney started 12th and quickly showed he had a strong piece underneath him. He not only took the lead once, but five times for a total of 19, of 267, laps.
Leading under green with five circuits remaining, and very little threat from behind, Blaney appeared to be the one to beat. However, Ross Chastain spun to bring out the late-race caution
With pit road open, the cat-and-mouse game of who was pitting and who wasn’t began to play out. A handful of drivers made the movements leading one to believe they were going to pit, but ended up staying out.
Blaney was one who did pit for tires and adjustments, Logano didn’t. When the race restarted drivers, as expected, became aggressive in search of a great finish.
The No. 21 of Matt DiBenedetto got into the No. 24 of William Byron in the middle of the scrum causing a tire rub and slowing Byron. Cars behind stacked up and slowed up with some being pushed into the outside wall.
That was the case for Blaney as the right side of his Ford was flattened. With cars spinning, the yellow was display after the white flag waved meaning the race ended.
“We just ended up getting absolutely destroyed with people not knowing how many cars were to the outside of them,” Blaney said. “Its easy to look back on and say we should have stayed out.
“That’s a tough call for Todd Gordon (crew chief) in his position. I have to thank him for giving me a really good car. We were great on long runs, just really so good on them.
“We’ll hold our heads up, it just stinks about the finish.”
As the series heads to Auto Club Speedway in California next weekend, Blaney leads the points over Logano by three markers.