Blown Tire Results in Practice Crash, Last Place Start for Blaney

Ryan Blaney's quest for a first career win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will start from behind the eight ball as the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse encountered a rough afternoon on Saturday.

During practice for Sunday's Pennzoil 400, Blaney suffered a flat right rear tire in Turn 2, which sent him spinning around. Blaney attempted to minimize the damage, but his race car would slightly back into the outside SAFER barrier.

The No. 12 goes for a spin in practice and heads to the garage early. pic.twitter.com/q042KIabbG
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After exiting the infield care center, Blaney stated that he was unsure of what caused his tire to go down in Saturday's practice session.

"I'm not sure, honestly. I don't know, it ran 18-20 laps, something like that," Blaney said. "So, I thought it was no problems. I don't know, we'll have to look at the tire and see."

While the damage wasn't severe enough to send Blaney and the No. 12 team to a backup car, the damage was enough where Blaney was unable to participate in Saturday afternoon's qualifying session at the 1.5-mile speedway.

As a result, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion, who finished third in this race a season ago, will start in the 36th position at the rear of the field on Sunday afternoon. While it's not ideal, it's not uncharted territory for the 31-year-old racer.

"Yeah, I had to do the same thing last year in the Fall race, unfortunately," Blaney explained. "Same problem, blowing a tire in practice. I thought our car was really good before that. The unfortunate about it, but they got a lot of work cut out for them. I don't know the damage to it, I gotta look and see when I get back there."

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