![\"Ryan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2261666971.jpg\")
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Ryan Blaney called for the fuel-saving racing at Daytona to be fixed.<\/p>\n
In the late laps of Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500, 2023 NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series Ryan Blaney found himself in a tough spot. The driver of the #12 was stuck in the middle of a three-wide pack.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Toyota drivers Bubba Wallace, Corey Heim, and Christopher Bell paced the field up front by controlling the three lanes of traffic. The bulk of the final stage saw the field running half throttle in order to save fuel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Blaney and the field of cars trailing the Toyotas, they weren\u2019t able to navigate a way to the front due to the log jam of cars trying to save fuel. After the checkered flag, Blaney expressed frustration in how the waning laps unfolded.<\/p>\n Ryan Blaney on Toyota drivers locking up the field: \u2018Got to fix that\u2019<\/p>\n Blaney posted a 27th-place finish in Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 after getting caught up in a last-lap crash heading into turn one.<\/p>\n Following the race, the North Carolina native caught up with motorsports reporter Toby Christie to recount the finish to the Daytona 500. While Blaney tried to make a charge to the front, the Toyota blockage at the front of the field prevented him from doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cSpent some time fixing our car after the stage two caution. Then, we started in the back and then just kinda got trapped. Toyotas running 52-second laps and were blocking the whole thing. Never really jumped anything on the pit stop and just didn\u2019t really go anywhere on the restart and got caught up in the wreck into [turn] one,\u201d Blaney said<\/a>.<\/p>\n As frustrated as the 17-time Cup Series winner was with the way things played out, he conceded that it was to be expected. Moving forward, Blaney called for change at the drafting tracks, in terms of fuel-saving racing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was going to happen eventually. They\u2019ve talked about it, Toyota has. Get three cars and just block the whole field. Unfortunate. We\u2019ve got to fix that. It\u2019s pretty bad,\u201d Blaney said.<\/p>\n Tyler Reddick went on to win the Daytona 500 for 23XI Racing. He wheeled his #45 Toyota past Chase Elliott\u2019s #9 Chevrolet on the final straightaway to claim the victory. It was Reddick\u2019s first Daytona 500 win in his seventh start.<\/p>\n Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished in second place, followed by Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, and Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five.<\/p>\n Blaney, meanwhile, has yet to win a Daytona 500 after 12 starts in the event. He\u2019s finished second twice in 2017 and 2020, and also has a pair of victories in the Daytona fall race in 2021 and 2025.<\/p>\n Ryan Blaney seeking second win at EchoPark Speedway next Sunday<\/p>\n With the Daytona 500 in the books, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday, February 22. Blaney will look to get back on track after a difficult 27th-place finish in \u201cThe Great American Race.\u201d<\/p>\n Blaney has one victory at EchoPark that came in 2021. However, that was prior to the 1.5-mile track becoming a drafting track. Since the change in style of racing at the track, Blaney has a best finish of second at EchoPark, coming in 2024.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJohn Breeden<\/a> John Breeden is a NASCAR contributor at Heavy Sports. He has five years of sports journalism experience. He graduated from James Madison University in May of 2022 with a degree in media arts and design. John is also a sports reporter for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Previously, John was a sports writer for JMU’s The Breeze and a NASCAR content writer for Sportskeeda. More about John Breeden<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Ryan Blaney called for the fuel-saving racing at Daytona to be fixed. In the late laps of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-478979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}