By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
When the bright yellow No. 12 Ford hit the lead in Sunday’s Daytona 500, it often tended to stay there.
And it was almost expected heading into the 200-lapper, as Ryan Blaney won the Can-Am Duel No. 1 Thursday night. However, that turned out to be his only win of the weekend, as the Daytona 500 victory slipped through his fingers in the chaotic Overtime finish.
It started from a restart with nine laps to go when Blaney battled tooth and nail with Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and others as the laps wound down. Despite leading a race-high 118 laps to that point, Blaney hit trouble when he turned Kurt Busch entering Turn 3 with two laps to go.
“With five to go, it was crunch time,” Blaney said. “I thought we could control pretty well from the lead and it just didn’t plan out that way.
“I got a good run on the No. 41, shut the door pretty hard. The No. 11 blocked him at the last minute. The No. 41 came to the top, [and I] got to his left rear and turned him. I hate to spin another Ford out. We were all just wrong place, wrong time.”
Running to the checkered flag in the seventh spot, Blaney did so without his Team Penske teammates. Joey Logano fell off the lead lap when he was hit with a pass-through penalty while race-favorite Brad Keselowski was taken out in a crash on lap 102.
Due to this, the first-year Penske driver proved to be the solo man to beat Sunday. However, Blaney knows that isn’t enough, and frankly, it doesn’t matter.
“You can have the best car in the world and not win the race and it don’t matter,” he said. “That’s what — I thought we had a good car, you just try to figure out what you could’ve done better for next time. You dominate a good race but it’s what happens sometimes.”