Joey Logano’s win at Atlanta got one foot in the door for Team Penske, but they still have another driver in the mix. While the defending champion, Ryan Blaney, could have turned his fortune around at ‘The Glen’, big trouble fell on him with an opening lap wreck that ruined all plans of a win. Amidst the devastation of the wreck, there was a different issue altogether, one raising a controversy around the rules of what crashed cars can do. Blaney may have just dodged a bullet.

One NASCAR Pundit brought a sigh of relief for Team Penske with a possibility of a late comeback. Despite Ryan Blaney’s early crash, Jordan Bianchi’s calculations may prove potential for a playoff spot.

Ryan Blaney still got enough points

With two races for the round of 16 playoffs completed, Blaney remains winless in both. What he does have are points from the first race. Because he finished third at Quaker Atlanta, Blaney had something of a lead over rivals Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., as well as Denny Hamlin, out of all of those who court elimination, as he currently sits 8th in the playoff standings.

According to Jordan Bianchi’s calculations, Blaney may not have to worry about elimination despite not finishing even the first stage of the race; he explained, “The good news for him, he’s still in a relatively safe area where even if he has a so-so race at Bristol he’s moving on. But man, you lose, I think he lost 17ish points or something like that.”  

What Bianchi says is that even if Blaney does not win a race, he can still qualify. There is some merit to the idea. At the moment, the #12 Ford stands at 29 points, in 8th position. While Larson and Byron are close behind with 26 and 25 points, respectively, the real game-changers for Blaney are Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs. Both drivers stand at 6 points and need extreme measures. Only outright wins can save them if Blaney continues to score an average level of points.

For Ryan Blaney, this might just be a blessing in disguise. The next two tracks perfectly suit Team Penske’s Fords, a fact both teammate Joey Logano and the No. 22 crew chief Paul Wolfe acknowledged.

Success at Atlanta indicated the performance the team can extract at speedways. Moreover, Joey Logano, who qualified early on, may just embrace the team spirit and help Blaney out.

Blaney campaigns for a rule change in NASCAR

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Corey LaJoie’s error going into turn 1 spiraled into a big mess, sliding into Busch, and taking other drivers out in the first lap. While Denny Hamlin escaped to continue his campaign, Ryan Blaney wasn’t so lucky. Since his car got damaged in the wreck, it ruled out a return to the race, meaning he did not score any points at all.

Jordan Bianchi highlighted the silver lining for Ryan Blaney in the matter. “It’s just a tough day, it’s frustrating. I get his frustration about the whole towing back thing, if we should be able to look at that kind of thing. But the rule to me is pretty clear. This has not been officiated any different that how it had been. You did have damage from the crash. So it’s a tough break and it’s unfortunate. The only good thing is you had a bunch of points in your back pocket.”

According to NASCAR’s DVP (Damaged Vehicle Policy) regulations;

• A car that stops on the track due to a puncture may return to racing if it is towed back to the garage.
• A wrecked car, on the other hand, cannot do so even if towed back to the garage and repaired.

Even though, as Bianchi emphasized, Ryan Blaney has points in his back pocket but doesn’t consider them an important factor, his situation may just be a one-off, wherein he has points to survive. In the playoffs stage, such as for the round of 16, there are only 3 races, meaning every driver has limited opportunity to qualify. In an instance such as this where the driver may not have points, they will essentially be ruled out of qualifying, handing opponents a cheap win.

While Ryan Blaney asks the rules to change, there is no indication of it happening soon.