Since that difficult stretch, Blaney has finished fifth the last two weeks at Darlington and Bristol, leading laps in both races. He was on his way to winning at Darlington before a late spin from Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson and led 48 laps at Thunder Valley before having to pit for fuel late.
The laps out front in Bristol were due to an alternate strategy where Blaney stayed out longer than the rest of the field, but he was near the front of the field for most of the race and had a good car underneath him to be able to take a chance.
Even with the blown engine at Homestead, Blaney led a commanding 124 laps and appeared to have the dominant car that day, but left with nothing to show for it.
The biggest inconsistency on the No. 12 team this season has been the pit crew. Prior to Bristol, NASCAR Insights had Blaney’s pit crew ranked 25th on average, per NASCAR.com. With a clean, mistake-free day on Sunday, they were rated the eighth-best pit crew, showing how dangerous this team can be when driver and crew are firing on all cylinders.Until the last two races at Darlington and Bristol, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney was likely counting down the days leading up to Easter weekend.
Since the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series took to the high banks of Daytona in February, this weekend represents the only off time for the series before going all the way to the championship race at Phoenix on Nov. 2.
Everything started on the right foot for Blaney with a pair of top 10s to open the season at Daytona and Atlanta. In the five races that followed, Blaney did not have a single top 10, including three straight DNFs that resulted in finishes of 28th or worse
