Ryan Blaney addresses Team Penske engine failures ahead of Martinsville

In two of the last three races, Ryan Blaney has had an engine blow up on him. So, what has Team Penske done to fix it? Well, the NASCAR champion won’t divulge those details, but we know a little bit more about what happened at Phoenix and Homestead.

Having multiple engine failures in a matter of three weeks is not ideal. Add on his DNF at Las Vegas for an accident and it makes things even more dire for the 12 team.

Speaking to the media at Martinsville ahead of practice and qualifying, Ryan Blaney was asked about the engine problems. He is hopeful that it won’t be an issue any longer.

“We believe there were separate issues [at Phoenix and Homestead] … they’re working hard on trying to figure out why the issue at Homestead happened,” Blaney said, via Kelly Crandall of RACER and ESPN. “We knew why the one at Phoenix happened.”

Ryan Blaney is currently 10th in points. He dropped three spots after his DNF at Homestead. Despite leading 147 laps in the season, Blaney doesn’t have much to show for it. The fact that he has two stage wins and 69 stage points total is keeping him in a good points situation.

When Blaney is good, he is really good. We have seen speed from the 12 team. However, we have not seen a lot of end-of-race speed. Martinsville is a track that has been very kind to Blaney in the past and he is hoping to make more memories there this weekend.

Since joining Team Penske officially in 2018, Blaney has made a name for himself at Martinsville. 15 races with Penske in the 12 car at the Paperclip and his worst finish is P20. He has only finished outside of the top-10 three times in that same 15-race stretch.

Even when he starts in the back, like in 2023 when he was P31 in qualifying, he rallies back. Blaney finished P7 in that race, making up 24 spots. We can’t forget that he has also won the fall race the last two years in a row.

When it comes to the Next Gen era, Ryan Blaney’s stats are only better. He has never finished worse than P7 since 2022, has two wins in that time, and an average finish of 3.5 – that is fantastic.

Blaney is a champion. In the last few years he has really come into his own. We saw him dominate and lead 124 laps at Homestead before an engine issue. Now, he goes to a track where he might be even better, at Martinsville. Are we going to see Blaney bounce back this Sunday?