Blaney’s win in last year’s 600-mile race earned him a spot in the 2023 playoffs, where he won two more races and secured his first series title.
Although he’s had a decent 2024 season so far, he came into this weekend’s race at Charlotte hoping for his first win of the year.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.
During Stage 2, while pit stops were happening, Blaney hit the outside wall in Turn 3, possibly due to a tire issue. This caused serious damage to the front of his No. 12 Penske Ford.
He managed to get to pit road, but his team couldn’t fix the car in time. NASCAR had to stop the race to tow Blaney’s car back to the garage.
Blaney shared, “We’ll need to check if I hit something or what happened. I was going into Turn 3, and suddenly, I had a tire blowout and hit the wall. It’s a disappointing end to our night. It’s tough.”
He had just finished his pit stop before the incident but wasn’t sure if that played a role.
“I’m not sure what caused it. It’s strange. We’ll have to investigate,” he added. “It’s frustrating.
“This makes it two tough weekends in a row. I thought we had a chance to improve. I was running close to the top 10, maybe top five, but we’ll bounce back.
“We just need to aim for a good race next week.”
Blaney now has two races in a row where he didn’t finish, after being involved in a wreck early in the May 12 race in Darlington, South Carolina. He ended up finishing 39th on Sunday night.
