Penske star Ryan Blaney calls out NASCAR on safety, plans offseason talks to address driver-side impact concerns

The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney recently voiced his concern about the Next-Gen car safety following his last-week crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. During the practice session before the Vegas race, he crashed into the wall after his #12 Ford lost its grip on the racetrack. This crash highlighted new flaws in Next Gen cars.

Speaking to Bob Pockrass ahead of the Homestead-Miami race, Ryan Blaney expressed his desire for NASCAR to improve Next Gen safety, specifically addressing the issue at the driver-side center area, where he had much impact from the crash at Vegas. He also revealed that he had a plan to meet with NASCAR during the off-season to discuss safety concerns related to driver-side impacts in the Next-Gen car.

Addressing Next-Gen Safety, here’s what Blaney said:

“I definitely think changes need to be made. It’s something we can talk about during the off-season with NASCAR, and I plan on doing that. That was kind of my first big hit with a side impact. I feel like the next step is, how do you get the center section of these cars to be a little bit more forgiving?

“We’ve worked on front and rear and done a pretty good job, and now it’s just the, you looked at that car last week, after the practice crash, and it just looked like it was scraped on the left side, like there was no huge body damage. It’s just this all — just break right there. So we’ve got to do a little bit. Hopefully we can figure that out and help those impacts,” Blaney continued.

Blaney also gave an update about health, saying he is feeling good after the hard hits he had at Vegas.

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What are Ryan Blaney’s championship 4 chances after an unfortunate Las Vegas race?

Last week's unfortunate Vegas outing put the #12 Team Penske driver in a must-win situation heading into the next two races of the Round of 8 playoffs.

Ryan Blaney heads to Homestead for the second race of Round of 8 with a lot of grounds to make up. This race is going to be an easy one, as it needs some luck to avoid last-minute wrecks or any mistakes to make it to the final four.

After finishing 32nd at Las Vegas, Ryan Blaney finds himself in the danger zone of getting eliminated from the playoffs. He currently sits seventh in the Cup Series playoff points table and 47 points below the cut line.

The 30-year-old native will start from the 20th starting position at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday.