“I just want to go home”: ‘Frustrated’ Ryan Blaney comes clean on the only path left after disappointing Las Vegas showdown

Following a catastrophic outing in Las Vegas during the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube, Ryan Blaney summed up his experience in a post-race interview. Speaking about his day, the Team Penske driver stated that he 'just wanted to go home' after the disappointing showdown.

During the race, Blaney experienced a series of events and a range of emotions. From a painfully long pit stop to a wreck that ruined his day, the #12 driver saw it all. In stage one, Blaney pitted to resolve an issue with his left front tire.

However, the pit crews took quite some time to sort out the issue, and it put him around two laps behind. However, the Team Penske driver recovered brilliantly, went back to the lead lap, and was within the top five when he faced a wreck.

In the final stage of the race, the #12 driver was running four-way wide alongside Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, and Noah Gragson, and this was when he made contact and lost control of his car. As a result of the hit, he collected Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, and many others and retired from the race.

After the wreck, he was taken to the in-field medical center within the track and was released after an initial check-up. Following this, he appeared for an interview with Frontsretch on X, where he spoke up about his day in Las Vegas.

"You try to take the best you can out of it, even though it just ended poorly you know," Blaney told Frontsretch. "Apart from getting wrecked and ending up 15th, 16th, have a terrible pit stop, go two laps down, takes a while to get back on lead lap, finally get going, finally get to the top five, that's hard."

"I think our car's really good and got wrecked. It's one of those weekends where it seems like nothing can really go right, but stick with it, stay in the game and come up tomorrow, and be at the racetrack next week. That's all I could do. But it is frustrating. I just, I just want to go home, honestly, and hangout with my wife tonight and just not think about racing in the evening, and be ready to go Monday morning," he further added. (1:00-1:54)

Josh Berry of Wood Brothers Racing claimed the victory in the race, ahead of Daniel Suarez of Trackhouse Racing and Ryan Preece of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. This was Berry's maiden Cup Series victory and Wood Brothers Racing's 101st.

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How did Ryan Blaney's teammate perform in Las Vegas race?

While Ryan Blaney faced a DNF in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube, his teammates Austin Cindric and Joey Logano had a topsy-turvy day.

Ryan Blaney (#12 Team Penske Menards\Pennzoil Ford), Erik Jones (#43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Dollar Tree Toyota), Bubba Wallace (#23 23XI Racing U.S. Air Force Toyota) and others involved in a late wreck during the Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup Series race - Source: Getty

Cindric and Logano started their race from second and third positions, respectively, but ended up in sixth and 15th positions in the end. Despite winning the stage 1, the #2 driver could not hold on to his advantage and had a bittersweet outing on Sunday.

So far, none of the Team Penske drivers were able to claim a victory in the first five races of the season. William Byron claimed the season-opener at Daytona, followed by three back-to-back victories by Christopher Bell at Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix.