Ryan Blaney, 12 team fume on radio over NASCAR decision to throw caution for Chase Briscoe lost wheel

Ryan Blaney and his No. 12 team expressed frustration with NASCAR while competing in the Las Vegas Cup Series race. Per Toby Christie of Sports Illustrated, the team got angry over NASCAR’s decision to throw a caution after Chase Briscoe lost a wheel.

“Blaney and the 12 team are furious that the caution was called as the tire came to a stop out of the racing groove,” Christie wrote on X/Twitter. “They’re saying NASCAR usually lets pit cycles play out before throwing the cautions. They’re trapped two laps down and will look to take a wave around here.”

Ryan Blaney had some work to do on Sunday since the caution put him and his team behind the eight ball. The weekend has not been great for the 31-year-old as he suffered a flat tire, spun out and damaged his car during practice on Saturday.

“It ran 18, 20 laps or something like that, so I thought it was no problem,” Blaney said, per NASCAR.com. “So yeah, I don’t know. We’ll have to look at the tire and see.”

“Unfortunate it happened, but happy it happened in practice and not the race,” Blaney’s crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, told PRN. “I think some of our setup parameters didn’t help, but we’ll be fine on Sunday.”

Will Ryan Blaney have a breakout 2025 season?

Blaney has had a strong start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. He earned a P7 finish at the Daytona 500 and followed that up with a P4 finish at Atlanta. Ryan Blaney then earned P19 and P28 finishes at COTA and Phoenix, respectively, but he’s currently fourth in the Cup Series points standings.

Before the start of the season, NASCAR legend and FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick predicted a big season for Ryan Blaney. “I really think that Ryan Blaney is due to break out here, because he has more speed than Joey Logano,” Harvick said on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. “I don’t think Austin Cindric has the speed of either one of them, or the consistency to put himself in that position to be in the same conversation with Blaney and Logano. And I think he’s going to have to figure that out as they go through this year and next year.”

On3’s Thomas Goldkamp contributed on this story.