The 2024 Speedweeks at Daytona is officially underway, and we could not have asked for a better start! Looking at the result from the Daytona Duels, Martin Truex Jr’s prediction of a ‘crapshoot’ became a reality after the Big One triggered by Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and William Byron changed everything in the second duel. And Ryan Blaney came off worst.

While Christopher Bell took the top honor, Ryan Blaney sustained the heaviest hit from the pileup, going into the wall after an infamously dangerous right-rear bump. Although the reigning champion made it out safely from a scary impact, his #12 challenger did not. This led the Team Penske driver to lose his cool with the drivers involved.

Ryan Blaney made it clear that the wreck-fest was not his fault

After getting right-reared twice in the last two seasons, Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel 2 at Daytona International Speedway was shaping up to be a rather good run for Ryan Blaney. He was running in fifth position, lining up with William Byron to take fourth. In the blocking battle that ensued, Blaney managed to keep the place while Byron lost momentum. But like sitting ducks on the straight, both drivers soon found Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski on their bumpers.

With Busch and Keselowski drafting quickly behind Byron, the loss of momentum of the #24 triggered them to make contact with Byron’s challenger, sending him sideways into Ryan Blaney’s right rear. The #12 immediately swung toward the barrier, triggering a horrific crash.

This meant that Blaney’s chances at Daytona were ruined for a third consecutive time, eventually causing the frustration to boil over. Only last year, Blaney suffered a front-end crash while leading the 2023 regular-season finale and impacting the wall with similar force at Turn 4. But what added another layer of misery for the #12 garage was the fact that they now had to work overtime on the backup car.

Blaney said, “P*ssed. I’m p*ssed. I’m sick of getting right reared here by someone’s awful push. I’m p*ssed we have a backup car for the 500. Did everything right tonight, and now we have to work our a**** off the next two days to try to get a 500-car ready. So I’m p*ssed and I have every right to be p*ssed.”

Further detailing his annoyance, Blaney shared with multiple media outlets post-race, “I can’t control it, but it comes from awful pushes from people. I mean, three times here in a row, awful pushes have led me to get right-reared and just guys not being smart, not knowing when to get off somebody. Like you cannot push in the corner that hard in the tri-oval. I don’t know when guys are going to get it. I’m sick of paying the expense of it and getting right-reared from someone’s dumb push!”

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While Ryan Blaney had certainly had enough of becoming collateral damage owing to others’ actions, Kyle Busch felt such incidents are nothing new for a superspeedway like Daytona to witness.

Kyle Busch dissected the incident that triggered Blaney’s heartbreak

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Speaking on what went down before the Big One, Kyle Busch shared with FrontStretch, “We were back in traffic. I was trying to make three wide moves and couldn’t go through the middle, just nowhere to go. But the net result at the end of our day was the big run that the #12 got kind of got the #24 shucked out of line, and he lost momentum.”

With William Byron losing momentum right in front of Busch, the RCR driver decided to lift off the throttle and tried his best to avoid hitting the #24. But a push from Brad Keselowski, who was already bump drafting and couldn’t see ahead of Busch, led to the inevitable. He added, “I hit the #24 on the tri-oval where you’re not supposed to and spun him out and caused the wreck. So just an accordion-type deal, but it happens that way.”

While Kyle Busch seemed to take the incident better than Blaney, the Richard Childress Racing garage would also have to overcome the same dilemma as Team Penske. Busch reflected on the work cut out for the team and said, “It’s not a good thing. We come down here and prep everything for the car we have and to use that car to try and go out here and win the Daytona 500. But you just roll out a backup, try to do it again.”

With the 2024 Bluegreen Vacations Duels being this heated, it’s safe to say NASCAR fans are certainly in for an exciting Daytona 500!

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