Dominating day blows up for Ryan Blaney
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Ryan Blaney entered the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season with only five recorded engine failures in his entire career and none since 2018.
In the first five races of 2025, he has now had two.
After leading 124 laps, winning stage one and taking bronze in stage two, Blaney blew an engine on lap 207 of 267.
The second stage break was where everything went wrong. Blaney dropped from third to ninth after making contact with Chase Elliott on pit road.
On the ensuing restart, on lap 173, Blaney dropped from ninth to 11th. However, his car stayed strong in traffic, bringing him up to third. He looked to challenge Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson for the lead with 60 to go before his engine detonated on the frontstretch.
“I didn’t have any warning. It just laid over when I got back to wide-open down the front and that was all she wrote. It just stinks,” Blaney said. “I appreciate the 12 guys for just giving me a hot rod. It was an incredibly, incredibly fast race car today. We’ll keep our heads up. It’s just one of those things where it’s not really going our way right now, but the good news is we’re bringing fast cars and that’s all you can ask for.”
Blaney also blew an engine two weeks before at Phoenix Raceway. His most recent engine failure before Phoenix was in May during the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His other recorded engine failures were before he began his full-time Cup Series career:
- 2015
- Daytona 500
- Lap 175/201
- Finished 39th of 43 cars
- Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway
- Lap 71/334
- Finished 42nd
- Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
- Lap 281/400
- Finished 42nd
- CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway
- Lap 84/196
- Finished 43rd
- Daytona 500
Discover more from The Racing Experts
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com