For a defending champion, Ryan Blaney has been a non-factor in determining the winner of a race quite a few times so far in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. He has finished outside of the top 10 in the last three races including a P19 at Richmond on Sunday. And that’s not even the worst part.

After the race, it was revealed that the #12 Ford Dark Horse Mustang and Christopher Bell‘s #20 Toyota Camry would be taken to NASCAR’s R&D department for inspection. If they find anything fishy, the Team Penske man could find himself outside of the top 20.

Ryan Blaney could lose spots after Richmond race or be disqualified

You wouldn’t know how the Richmond race was for Ryan Blaney because at no point during the event was he ever in a position to fight for the lead. Unfortunately, this has been a recurring occurrence ever since he finished in the top five for three consecutive races: Atlanta (P2), Vegas (P3), and Phoenix (P5).

Even if one has to consider his track record at Richmond, it has been quite underwhelming. The only time in his Cup Series career that Blaney had a fighting chance to take the checkered flag home was when he ensured a pole win, led a total of 128 laps on race day along with a Stage 1 win and P5 and P7 finishes in the Stage 2 and Stage 3 in 2022. For the rest of his career, he has led zero lapses except for two other instances when he led just 1 (2022) and 2 laps (2023).

Maybe Blaney will find his form towards the end of the season like he did in 2023 but for now, Team Penske has a lot to be concerned about. The #12 and #20 cars will have to be close to perfection for their regulations to keep their positions. Otherwise, they might run the risk of falling down the order or even being disqualified. Apart from Blaney and Bell, Kyle Larson’s #5 car and Kyle Busch’s #8 will also be taken in for engine dyno and no inspection.

Blaney experienced NASCAR’s roller coaster post-race inspection ordeals last year as well. In October, Blaney’s car was disqualified after it failed NASCAR’s post-match inspection following the Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Blaney had crossed the finish line sixth but was credited with a last-place finish and one point after inspection determined that the left-front shock on the car did not meet the required length of 22.55 inches. However, the penalty was rescinded a day later.

The series said it discovered a problem with the template used during the inspection process and restored Blaney’s stage and race finishing positions.

While an inspection already puts a crease on a driver’s forehead, for Ryan Blaney that’s not the only cause for concern. It’s safe to say that the Richmond performance might have disappointed him more than anyone, which was evident from his pre-race comments. As per a report in NASCAR, the defending Cup Series champion seemed to be in high spirits but it all came crashing down.

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Just like Ford, Toyota also came out with a new car for this year’s Cup Series campaign but seemed to run it a lot better than their competitors. Ryan Blaney believes that there is a lot more his team could do to improve their performance with the Ford Dark Horse Mustang and was eyeing Richmond as the track to take the first steps towards that goal.

“It’s a place we got to improve a little bit, just kind of overall. Toyota has done a good job of having a new car and figuring out what they need to do right away to be competitive. We did a lot of hard work in the winter trying to figure out, ‘OK, where’s the maximum potential of this new car’, and we just haven’t quite hit that yet, and we’re working on it. I mean, you’re trying and it’s hard to do, especially when there’s no testing or anything like that. You don’t know where you’re at until you unload at the race track,” he said.

It will be interesting to see how the defending Cup Series champion comes back from this setback. But for now he will have to worry about the post-race inspection that could further dent his season.

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