“I Was Guilty as Charged”: Ryan Blaney Takes the Fall for ‘Using Up’ Tony Stewart’s Driver

Before Team Penske’s No. 12 Ford fired its engines on Sunday, its prospects looked bright in Texas. Ryan Blaney displayed strength in the practice and qualifying sessions. Set to start from seventh place, Blaney’s team was pumped for some high-speed drama. But one of the many wrecks in the Texas race threw a wrench in his plans.

The caution-riddled race witnessed 16 instances of drivers falling prey to the notorious Turns 1 through 4. Ryan Blaney was no exception to it, but he found himself at the receiving end of a rival’s wrath as well. Yet he chooses not to hold any grudge.

Ryan Blaney eats humble pie after Texas mishap

After clinching four top-five finishes, Ryan Blaney looked ready for another solid run at Texas. But the Lone Star state had a different fate fixed for him. Texas Motor Speedway was already giving drivers a hard time with its bumpy turns. Blaney happened to use that against Tony Stewart’s driver, Ryan Preece but ended up facing the latter’s wrath. 

Opening up about the incident, Ryan Blaney narrated his actions with a guilty look. “TV didn’t show…I used him up pretty good in 3 and 4. Kind of ran him up the race track. I ran up more than I was planning on. I was planning on taking up some space, but I ran him up more than I thought and got him out of the groove. He was rightfully upset with that, I would’ve been too.”

Then Preece unleashed his revenge on Blaney a little while later. “Then he got to me a lap later and got into me pretty good. I deserved to get used up for sure, for what I did. I was guilty as charged but I don’t know if I deserved to get junked for what I did, but … it’s one of those racing things…I used up a bunch of track, he was mad, and he decided to retaliate.”

Ryan Blaney fared well for the major part of the race. He finished sixth in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2. However, his day turned dark on lap 182, when Ryan Preece opted to take out his anger. He bumped into Blaney’s car which ultimately slammed into the outside wall. Although the No. 12 crew made repairs, Blaney could walk home with only a 33rd-place finish.

Blaney justified Preece’s actions, albeit admitting it was a bit too much. “He had every right to retaliate, he just didn’t have to wreck me. Like, he could move me out of the way…just one of those things, you move on from it. I didn’t blame him for wanting to move me out of the way. Yeah, how he hit me was a little excessive maybe, ’cause I was going to wreck. But I deserved to get moved in some way for what I did.”

While the two Ryans turned at each other this time, last year Daytona had played a deadly game with them.

Blaney and Preece narrowly escaped severe injury

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Ryan Blaney was wrecked by his namesake in Texas. But in last season’s August Daytona race, the track itself turned rogue on both Ryans. They raised alarms in the NASCAR community with horrifying crashes. After getting sandwiched in traffic, Blaney’s car turned hard right and slammed the wall at full speed. It had an eerie resemblance with Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash in Daytona in 2001.

But Ryan Preece’s accident looked far more terrifying. He lost control of his car on the backstretch, and as a result, it turned sideways and became airborne. The battered car somersaulted several times in mid-air before finally landing on the ground.

Thankfully, both drivers escaped that ordeal unscathed.