INDIANAPOLIS — As Kyle Larson celebrated, Ryan Blaney seethed.
“I’m pissed,” Blaney said after finishing third in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I told my guys that I’m ticked off, but I don’t know who to be ticked off at. Like there’s no one to be ticked off at. It’s just like racing luck.”
Blaney saw his chances to win diminish as soon as Brad Keselowski, who was leading, came to pit road as the field headed to take the green flag to begin the first overtime restart. Keselowski was out of fuel.
Keselowski had taken the inside lane and Blaney, who was second at the time, chose the outside lane for the restart. The inside lane is the preferred lane but Blaney didn’t want to restart behind Keselowski, fearing Keselowski would run out of fuel and block him, allowing the car on the outside to pull away.
When Keselowski pulled off for pit road, the cars on the inside lane all moved up a row as the field approached the restart zone. That put eventual winner Kyle Larson on the inside of Blaney on the front row.
“The break that (Larson) got and the hardship I got right there with that happening at that time just killed our race,” Blaney said. “We put ourselves in the perfect spot to win and just that weird circumstance, it just benefitted him and it just killed our race … that’s what I’m upset about. I’m not mad at anybody. That’s just lady luck I’m just pissed off.
“This sucks, man.”
On the restart, Larson and Blaney ran side-by-side into Turn 1 before Larson pulled away. Blaney told his team on the radio after the race that he just didn’t have the grip on the outside to challenge Larson further. Tyler Reddick got by Blaney before the finish to place second.
Larson acknowledged his fortune as he stood at the yard of bricks with NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. after the win.
“With the way the strategy was working out, Brad running out of fuel, me inheriting the front row, a lot had to fall into place,” Larson said. “Thankfully it did.”
Asked if NASCAR should have not allowed the race to restart once Keselowski pulled off to pit and had drivers choose again, Blaney said: “I don’t know. I can easily say like if the leader runs out coming to the restart, wave off the green, re-choose because you’re promoting the third-place guy now to where I get screwed.
“I’m the one getting screwed, so the third-place guy is benefitting, the guy behind me is benefitting. It’s one of those weird, like, you don’t see that very often and at a place like this. If it was any other place, it’s not going to be as bad because the second lane, you can kind of, all the other places, you can maintain. Here, it’s just a death sentence. You’re not maintaining the lead from the top on the front row.
“Obviously, I’m going to say they should re-rack in that situation just to make it fair. That’s the only way it can be fair.”