NASCAR exec shares new details into why Ryan Blaney wasn't allowed to repair car after Watkins Glen crash

Ryan Blaney crashed out of Sunday’s Round of 16 race at Watkins Glen on Lap 1 after making contact with Brad Keselowski coming out of the bus stop.

NASCAR parked him without giving his team the chance to make repairs, which Blaney did not understand. Brad Moran, Cup Series managing director, explained why the sanctioning body determined that Blaney was done for the day during a Tuesday appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Moran said the decision to park Blaney came down to him not being able to drive his car back to his pit stall. That, Moran said, was consistent with the policy since its adoption in 2017.

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🗣️ "(He) did end up busting the […] steering."#NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director Brad Moran provided context as to why @Blaney was towed to the garage and the No. 12 team was not allowed to work on the car rafter his crash @WGI.

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— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) September 17, 2024

“If you are in an incident and you are on the DVP [damaged vehicle policy] and you cannot drive the vehicle back to your pit stall, then you are out of the race at that point,” Moran said. “If you drive it into the garage or behind the wall, at that point you’re out of the race. And you have to go to the care center. So, it’s a variety of reasons or efficiencies or safety. But all the industry in collaboration put this together in 2017.

“It was very unfortunate. I totally get Blaney’s frustration. But he was involved with the incident with the 6 [Brad Keselowski] which did end up busting the front suspension or steering I believe it was at the end of it all. And that would be consistent with what we’ve been doing since 2017.”

Ryan Blaney calls out NASCAR for ending his day early after Lap 1 wreck at Watkins Glen

Blaney entered the day 33 points above the cutline, but hardly got the chance to pad his cushion. He instead dropped points, now 29 points clear going into Bristol this Saturday.

While Blaney should still be OK as it relates to advancing to the Round of 12, he wanted the chance to go back out and complete some laps at Watkins Glen.

“Give us a chance to fix it, how are they going to dictate if we’re done or not?” Blaney said. “They have no idea the damage. They said because I couldn’t drive it back to the pit box we’re done. But if you have four flats you get towed back to the pit box, you can’t drive it back. So, I don’t know what’s going on, why they won’t even give us a shot to work on it. But I don’t agree with it.

“I don’t even know what happened honestly. Stacked up, I caught someone on the left front, and it completely broke the steering arm. I don’t know if we could have fixed it but that’s the frustrating part. Just don’t even give us a chance you just end our day. And you’re not letting us get to look at it before it’s in the garage? That just stinks.”