Brake Failure Hampers Ryan Blaney's Championship Hopes

Understandably, Ryan Blaney came into Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway with a ton of optimism. Over the four previous trips to the 1.25-mile track, Blaney and the No. 12 Team Penske team have been among the very best at the track.

While Blaney was again in the mix for a solid finish in the final Stage of Sunday's race, everything came unraveled for Blaney, one of the 16 drivers vying for the NASCAR Cup Series championship, when he suffered a brake failure on Lap 155.

Trouble for @Blaney on the frontstretch brings the yellow back out on Lap 155. pic.twitter.com/1xMqJw3fhZ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 13, 2026

The brake failure sent Blaney's No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the outside wall, and effectively ended his day. Blaney will finish 35th on a day that he was expected to contend for the win. The driver, who entered the day third in the Chase for the Championship standings, will see his ranking tank considerably with the subpar finish.

The brake issues at Gateway certainly have not been limited to just Blaney, it's been a recurring problem at this facility since NASCAR chose to take the Cup Series to the track for the first time in 2022.

After being checked and released from the infield care center, Blaney explained that he had "no warning" that his brakes were going to fail, but that he, "had a little concern early in the race. But then they kind of stabilized."

Then, Blaney says, "And gosh, I feel like they blew on the frontstretch before I even touched the brake pedal. They just crumbled apart and blew out."

Earlier in Sunday's race, Zane Smith, the driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, also suffered a catastrophic brake failure, which sent him hard into the outside wall in Turn 1.

This incident involving @ZaneSmith ends Stage 2.@KyleLarsonRacin is credited with the stage win. pic.twitter.com/S0RgXY0RfI
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 13, 2026

Smith, who was described by his team's public relations team as awake, alert, and walking in the infield care center, has not had any additional updates to his condition since going to the infield care center.

While the track has featured a slew of brake problems in the NASCAR Cup Series, Blaney doesn't feel NASCAR needs to mandate changes to the brake package rules, and that teams can make the proper changes themselves.

"I mean, it's all team related," Blaney said after exiting the race. "We'll have to look and see what we felt really good about. We haven't had a failure in our company on the brakes here. So, we'll just have to look at, you know, was there anything different? But no, I think just leaving that up to the teams is probably the best way to do it."

Add us as a preferred source on Google