Ryan Blaney doesn’t hold back after Chase Elliott and Team Penske’s costly Miami blunders: “It just stinks”

Team Penske's No.12 driver Ryan Blaney, opened up on his misfortunes in Homestead-Miami, with his engine blowing up in the final stage. He expressed his frustration after the unexpected incident took him out of contention, pointing out that he had a fast car leading a lot of laps. Blaney acknowledged losing out positions to Chase Elliot's pit road incident but saw positives with getting back to third before disaster struck.

On Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400, Ryan Blaney was running third as he rolled into the pits after Stage two, when Chase Elliott swerved directly onto his path and made contact with his front left. Consequently, Blaney had to pump the brakes and lost positions on the pit road, to come out at eighth. Despite the setback, Blaney managed to reach the front of the pack when smoke blew out of his engine on the front stretch, causing him to retire the car.

Talking to the media post-race, Blaney didn't hold back on his tough break and said,

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"I didn't have any warning. It just laid over when I got to wide-open down the front and that was all she wrote. It just stinks. We had a really fast Dent Wizard Ford Mustang. We led a lot of laps. We lost a little bit of track position there with some stuff on the pit road, but we got back to third and it was a great race between me and Bubba and Larson.

"It was gonna be a heck of a battle the last 60 laps or so, but it just didn't really workout for us," he added.

Ryan Blaney led a total of 124 laps before retiring to a 36th position on the grid. This is Blaney's second blown engine of the year, his first being in Phoenix, where he similarly ran at the front. Moreover, Miami also marks the third straight DNF of the season for the No.12 Penske Ford.

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Ryan Blaney on a streak of bad luck after three consecutive DNFs

Ryan Blaney was running in ninth when his No.12 Ford began to smoke on Lap 290 of the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix. With 22 laps remaining, Blaney retired from the race to finish at 28th, ending his streak of seven consecutive top-five finishes at Phoenix.

Blaney shared his disappointment with the race and shared a post on X with the caption :

"We were in position to have a great day, but it wasn't in the cards. We just blew up and that's unfortunate. On to Vegas."

Las Vegas wasn't a different story either, as Blaney got caught up in a four-wide situation on lap 195 when he spun out and triggered a multi-car wreck. He was running in seventh at that point and ended up retiring to finish at 35th.

After suffering another engine failure in Miami and finishing in 36th, the 2023 Cup champion ranks tenth in the standings with 162 points. With three DNFs, Blaney's average finish stands at a lowly 21 after two top-tens and one top-five finish.