SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Losing the Brickyard 400 is hard to take in any case. It’s even harder when circumstances beyond your control feel like they’ve robbed you of a win in NASCAR’s crown jewel race.
So it’s understandable that Ryan Blaney was upset after finishing third in Sunday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But the problem for the Cup Series champion was that he wasn’t sure where to direct his anger.
He suffered a tough defeat at a track where every driver wants to kiss a brick in celebration. Winning here is a major achievement, and Blaney came very close.
“I’m angry, but I don’t know who to be angry at. I don’t think there’s anyone I can be angry at,” Blaney said. “It’s just the luck of the draw.
“I’m just mad. I’m just annoyed, man.”
The incident that triggered Blaney’s frustration began when Kyle Busch spun and went under Denny Hamilton just entering Turn 3, sending the race into overtime and further challenging the fuel economy limits already faced by many cars.
Among those in danger of running out was front-runner Brad Keselowski, who took the impossible Hail Mary in hopes of making it to the finish line and so decided not to pit for fuel during the caution period. As expected, as Keselowski approached the start and finish lines for the race to resume, his fuel tank was empty, and he quickly sprinted to the pits as the field exited Turn 4.
This put Blaney in the lead, with Kyle Larson sliding into second. But Blaney had already chosen the less favorable outside lane, and Larson was now on the inside. NASCAR gave Larson the advantage by prohibiting drivers from re-selecting lanes, since Blaney would have chosen the inside lane if he had been given the option.
Yet Blaney felt like he was effectively powerless, despite being the frontrunner.
“The easy thing for me to say is, if the leader runs out on the restart, wave your hand on the green and pick again, because you’re promoting the guy in third to where I’m being cheated,” Blaney said. “I’m being cheated. So the guy in third benefits, and the guy behind me benefits.
“It wouldn’t have been so bad anywhere else, because second lane is pretty much maintained everywhere else. Here, it’s just a death sentence. You can’t maintain the lead at the top, in the front row.”
As Blaney had predicted, Larson took advantage of this and took the lead into Turn 1. He would not relinquish that lead. Larson later noted that he specifically chose to restart right behind Keselowski in the hopes that he could move into the lead if Keselowski ran out of fuel.
“We had a lot of radio communication that Brad was going to get really close to the fuel and that he might run out of fuel based on that warning,” Larson said. “I was going to follow him in whatever lane he was in and just hope he ran out of fuel before we got to the restart area.
“Yeah, he just pulled off pit road. I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is going exactly the way we hoped and thought it would.'”
Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson were 1-2-3 when Keselowski ran out of fuel and had to make a pit stop. Larson then slid inside to take the win. (Shawn Gardner/Getty Images)
Some people wondered after the race whether NASCAR should allow a re-selection in such a situation. It’s not a problem with a simple solution.
A notable hurdle at a 2.5-mile track like Indianapolis is the time it takes the field to re-select lanes. The situation Sunday was not common enough to have NASCAR reevaluate the rules.
“I understand the emphasis because of the race, the circumstances, the front row,” Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels said. “There have been a lot of Cup races where you’ve finished fifth, 10th, 20th. (Today was no different.) Everybody knows that’s the rule.
“In every other racing series, you fill the line, grab the green flag and move on. I don’t see it as that big of a deal.”
But on Sunday, Blaney was somewhat affected. There’s no doubt about that. Even Larson admitted after the game that he benefited from Keselowski’s misfortune.
“As the strategy was going well, Brad ran out of gas and I took over the front row, a lot of things had to fall into place,” Larson said. “Thank goodness it did.”
The win was Larson’s first at Indianapolis, and it set off an ecstatic celebration that saw him, Daniels, team owner Rick Hendrick and team executive Jeff Gordon head to the front grandstand to celebrate with fans. Larson now has three wins in NASCAR’s crown jewel race.
Meanwhile, things were decidedly less festive on pit road. After getting out of the car, Blaney needed a moment to relax and decided to sit on the pit wall to collect himself.
“We should have won the race,” he said. “… It was just disappointing. It was just frustrating. It was just dumb luck. We did everything right to win and he got a break. It was pretty good.”
(Top photo of Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney during Sunday’s Brickyard 400: Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
