NASCAR Legend Points Fingers at Roger Penske & Co., Revealing the True Culprit Behind Ryan Blaney’s Gateway Misery

Team Penske has received raps from NASCAR multiple times this year. It began with Joey Logano’s ingenious glove gimmick in Atlanta. The No. 22 driver wore webbed gloves to gain an aerodynamic advantage but gained a penalty sooner than he would have imagined. Then the massive IndyCar scandal involving a Penske trio of drivers emerged. Now, it looks like Ryan Blaney is not so happy with the team either.

Last Sunday, Roger Penske’s team ran strong at the Gateway race. But the closing laps spelled a climactic twist as one driver faltered as his teammate soared ahead. The reason might lie in the pit crew’s work, as two NASCAR insiders discuss.

The Gallons & Cans math that snatched Blaney’s victory 

The No. 12 Penske team executed an elaborate strategy at the Enjoy Illinois 300. After the final cycle of green-flag pit stops, Ryan Blaney was the first car on fresh tires. With 64 laps remaining, he was the first Penske driver to pit for fuel. But as the battle intensified between Blaney and Christopher Bell, the narrative changed. After Bell faltered, Blaney mysteriously lost gas just shy of one lap left, handing Austin Cindric the win. What exactly happened to Blaney?

Legacy Motor Club crew chief Todd Gordon and FOX racing analyst Larry McReynolds sat down to dissect the St. Louis last-lap scenario. Both experts narrowed down the issue to that last fuel stop. It took 10.1 seconds, and the fuel flow time took 7.2 seconds. The No. 12 team was supposed to unload two cans of fuel into Blaney’s car, but they ended up doing less than that.

Gordon explained at length, “We look at these gas cans, it’s just under two gallons a second that they can dump. If that’s two cans, that’s 14 gallons of fuel. But that wasn’t. If we go back and watch this from a different angle, that was one can that they used here. “

McReynolds agreed, pinning the blame on the Penske team, which showed no intention of providing adequate gas. “You see the other cans back here, they’re pretty much just on the stand back there. There’s no intent. I’m gonna dump the one can, and that’s all I’m doing right there.”

Ryan Blaney would have won at the 1.25-mile speedway if not for this faulty pit execution. McReynolds noted the thin margin between Blaney’s P24 finish and a potential win. “Yeah, and again, they gave up about a second and three-quarters on this pit stop. Of course, if Blaney does not run out of fuel, they’re gonna lose the race right here. But all Blaney needed was about a quarter of a gallon more fuel, just a little over one lap.”

When Ryan Blaney realized his fuel dilemma, he let his emotions burst over the radio. Yet after the race, he fervently thanked his team’s hard work, steering off blame from them. But maybe that was because he was not sure why fuel ran out: “Just, I don’t know what I gotta do to get some luck on our side.” Now that Gordon and McReynolds have dived deeper, Blaney may change his viewpoint.

While nursing his own wounds, Ryan Blaney was happy with the overall Team Penske result.

Blaney pats the team on the back despite a personal misery

In Sunday’s contest, Ryan Blaney led 20 of the last 23 laps and hoped for his first top-five finish since the April 7 race at Martinsville Speedway. He had three straight finishes outside the top 20, including consecutive DNFs at Darlington Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Gosh, wrecked the last two points races and thought we had a great shot to win today, and it ended up bad,” he said.

Yet Blaney was happy with his teammates’ performances. All three Penske teams stood out in terms of strategy. They made only three trips down the pit road, while most of the other drivers came down the pit road four times. Although Blaney was the odd one out, Cindric won, and Logano secured his first top-five finish in eight races. Hence, Ryan Blaney was content, “It was a good day for our cars to run first, fifth and we were there in the top five. Proud of the effort, and I’m proud a Penske car won.” 

However, the NASCAR insider revelation about Team Penske’s slip-up might axe Blaney’s feelings. Let us wait and see how the team works on itself to improve at Sonoma Raceway.

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