Ryan Blaney’s bid to win Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway came to an end after he was involved in a Lap 129 caution during Stage 2.
Blaney, running the outside line coming off Turn 2, made contact with the wall after William Byron made it three-wide between he, Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. In his words to his team, his No. 12 Ford was “f***ing killed and I’m gonna go kill both those motherf***ers is what I’m going to do.”
Blaney was a bit more relaxed speaking with Jamie Little of FOX Sports after being checked out of the infield care center, but made it clear he was frustrated with Byron.
“I was just mad I ended up in the fence and wrecked,” Blaney said. “He [Byron] shoved it three-wide under us and just got tight off of [Turn] 2, got tagged and ended up getting wrecked. We kind of have every right to be mad. And he gets away scot-free. Just unfortunate. I thought we got pretty good, finally got up to sixth and really made good ground in the first stage. … We had something to work with and I was excited to start the second half of the race and just didn’t get that chance.”
Ryan Blaney nearly hits William Byron during caution
During the caution, it looked as if Blaney made a move to potentially hit Byron. He told Dustin Long of NBC Sports that he almost hit him by accident and that he would “save that for another time.”
“I’m not gonna hit him, I’ll save that for another time,” Blaney said. “I almost did on accident, I got on the apron and the toe link was busted. Almost hit him when I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to show my displeasure, so we’ll see where it goes. Just wanted to show I wasn’t happy. After watching the replay, I kind of deserve not to be happy. He used up some good track that I thought he didn’t have to use up.”
Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion, entered Sunday’s race sixth in the points standings. He’s still looking for his first win of the season, as is all of Ford.
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