Ryan Blaney prepared for Sunday’s race at Indianapolis the same way he would any other race by going back and reviewing the race from the previous year, but he didn’t watch every lap of 2024.
“I watched it. I didn’t watch the last restart,” Blaney said Friday. “Everything up to there, I watched it like I normally watch every race before we go back, but [at] the last restart, I turned it off.”
Blaney trailed Brad Keselowski with three laps to go in regulation of last year’s event when the caution came out. On the ensuing restart, Keselowski ran out of fuel coming down the frontstretch and ducked to pit road. The field had already chosen which lanes they wanted to restart in, and Blaney took the outside because he didn’t want to be caught behind Keselowski and his dwindling fuel.
Kyle Larson, lined up in third position in the row behind Keselowski, inherited the front row (per the rule of the lane moving up when a driver falls out). In doing so, Larson gained the preferred lane for the restart and quickly took control once the race restarted. The final restart, for second overtime, was more of the same with Larson going to the bottom and Blaney doing his best from the outside.
Larson won the race. Blaney finished third and was the most upset he’s ever shown on pit road afterward in his interviews.
“It was just crappy circumstances,” Blaney reflected on last year’s ending. “That’s the only thing that stings. Yeah, the rule is the rule, and that’s what it is. That part is separate. It just hurts a lot to go back and watch it because we were in a great spot to win, and it’s the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes things don’t go in your favor, or the timing of things doesn’t work out, so that’s really the only reason it hurts.
“Not mad at the rule or anything. It was just crappy circumstances.”
There is a hint of redemption in Blaney’s attitude this year. He has a personal desire to win one of the biggest races on the NASCAR schedule, and do so for the team owner who loves the Speedway perhaps more than any other – Roger Penske having owned the famed facility since 2019.
In seven starts, Blaney’s average finish on the Indianapolis oval is 17.7 with three DNFs. A third-place finish last year and a seventh-place qualifying position in the same race are the best single-weekend performances Blaney has had at the speedway.
“That one cut me deep,” he said. “That was just a bummer situation, but I was looking forward to getting back here. Obviously, a huge weekend being here with [Roger] and everybody, and hopefully we can bring the same speed and try to contend. I would have liked to know what we had today (with practice rained out), and obviously, we won’t get the chance. We’ll see if maybe they do something tomorrow.
“It’s nice to come back. We have this place circled on our calendar every year because we know what it means to him and all of Team Penske. It’ll be nice to hopefully make it up.”