“Very low percentage move”: Ryan Blaney critical of Michael McDowell after wrecking at New Hampshire

Ryan Blaney voiced his dissatisfaction with Michael McDowell's maneuver during the final stage of the USA Today 301 race. In a post-race interview, the #12 criticized McDowell's move as "a very low percentage play," noting that it didn't yield any benefits for either him or McDowell.

Fresh off a win at Iowa, Ryan Blaney was aiming for a second straight victory. Meanwhile, Michael McDowell, in his last season with Front Row Motorsports before transitioning to Spire Motorsports next year, was hoping to improve on his recent P23 finish at Iowa Speedway.

Michael McDowell made an unexpected move on a restart with nine laps to go at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, diving deep into Turn 1 on wet-weather tires after a rain-soaked afternoon. McDowell's #34 Ford skidded up the track, clashing with Ryan Blaney’s #12 Mustang as they battled for second. The contact caused both cars to slide through the corner, trailing race leader and eventual winner, Christopher Bell.

Both McDowell and Ryan Blaney managed to finish on the lead lap, though neither made it back into the top 10 by the race’s end. Reflecting on the incident, Ryan Blaney found little consolation in his 25th-place finish. He remarked:

“Yeah he said he's sorry but he still wrecked me. He just send it off in there and no intention of making the corner and spun both of us. So, a very low percentage move that obviously didn't work," via FrontStretch on X.

Ryan Blaney expressed his frustration openly, questioning the thought process behind the aggressive maneuver.

"I mean, it’s wet down there, and you’re just going to shove it off in there and what do you think’s going to happen? You’re going to take both of us out. So I know he’s got to win and all that, and that’s his excuse, but you’ve got to be a little bit more calculated than that, and it just stinks that we’re at the expense of it. Man, I really thought we had a decent shot to contend," Blaney stated, as quoted by NASCAR.

Michael McDowell, on his part, offered an explanation for his maneuver during the race.

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Michael McDowell explains what urged him to wreck Ryan Blaney

After finishing P15, McDowell revealed that his aggressive driving was because of a pressing need to make the Cup Series Playoffs. Sitting winless and P22 in the standings, still nearly 100 [99] points away from the cutoff, and with just eight races left before the playoffs, he felt compelled to take a chance.

After the race, the drivers had a respectful conversation on the pit road, where McDowell apologized for the incident that compromised their results. Sharing his perspective, McDowell explained:

"I was in a do-or-die situation. I had to go for it. I know it was a low-percentage move, but I had to try. All the guys that went to the bottom [lane], in one and two [turns] on those restarts just got freight-trained, so I knew I needed to enter in the middle, and I just got the left sides right on the wet paint, and it just kind of took off," he recounted during a post-race interview with Bob Pockrass.

McDowell continued:

“So, I hate it for [Ryan] Blaney, and I know it ruined his day, ruined my day, too, and I apologize to those guys for that, but I’m at a point in the season where I have to go for it, too. So, you don’t know until you get there, and I was just in there a little too deep.”

Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney was driving well during the whole race consistently, ranking in the top five during the first two stages, only to finish a disappointing 25th.