155 laps into the 240-lap NASCAR Cup race at WWT Raceway, a weekend of opportunity ended in disaster for Ryan Blaney. The Team Penske driver suffered a catastrophic brake failure, crashing into the outside wall and ending his race.
Blaney was running sixth, and was just a few points out of the championship lead when he wrecked.
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It was part of a harrowing day of racing at Gateway, but Blaney was the first of any of the 16 Chase drivers to suffer a DNF. He will finish 35th in the second round of the ten-week Chase for the championship, and likely end the day outside the top five in points.
Fellow Ford driver Zane Smith suffered a brake failure earlier in the race, crashing heavily in Turn 1.
After being released from the infield care center, Blaney said there was “no warning. I had a little concern early in the race. But then they kind of stabilized. They didn’t really get worse. And, gosh, I feel like they blew on the front stretch before I even touched the brake pedal. They just crumbled apart and blew out. Honestly, it’s unfortunate, but fairly fortunate where they blew, and didn’t blow as I was kind of in the corner. But it’s a shame.
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In a later media scrum, Blaney added: “Didn’t feel great about them the run before and probably just expired. Yeah, just gotta keep going. Go to next week and try to have a good day. Yeah, it’s a shame. I thought we did a really good job today. I thought the car was good and had good stage points and was looking forward to the end of the race. So, just go race next week.”
He “felt like they were in contention” for the win, and when asked by Motorsport.com if NASCAR should put in certain mandates to avoid brake failures like this, he disagreed.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Blaney told Motorsport.com. “I mean, it’s all team related. We’ll have to look and see what we felt really good about. We haven’t had a failure in our company on the brakes here. So, we’ll just have to look at, you know, was there anything different? But no, I think just leaving that up to the teams is probably the best way to do it.”
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