Last-lap wreck at Talladega leaves friends Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace frustrated

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ryan Blaney has to wonder what he needs to do to win races.

He does.

"Every single day," Blaney said in a disappointing tone when asked how often he thinks about why he is having rotten luck.

And then he said with emphasis: 

"Every single day."

Blaney finished second Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway — his fourth runner-up finish since his last win at Daytona in 2021 — as he saw his winless streak extend to 56 races.

This one might have stung more and not just because it continued the frustration of coming so, so close. Not only has Blaney recorded 17 top-fives and 28 top-10s in those 56 races and has finished top-two in four of the past eight Talladega races, the finish Sunday came as he turned good friend Bubba Wallace on the final lap.

Blaney had good reason to turn Wallace. Wallace was leading with Blaney behind him in the outside lane while Kyle Busch was getting a run on the inside. They moved to the inside lane and then Wallace blocked a few moves of Blaney's as Blaney tried to go high and then low again ... and Blaney ultimately turned Wallace.

Amid the chaos, Blaney lost a spot to Busch and the caution came out, leaving Blaney one spot short and terribly disappointed.

"It's hard to block in these cars," Blaney said. "I felt like he kind of triple-moved on me. You can't really do that.

"He blocked the middle, blocked the bottom and blocked the top, and I'm there. It's a shame he got turned, but I don't know what else I can do beside slam on the brakes, and you can't do that."

After he got out of the infield care center, Wallace took the blame of wrecking while battling his good friend who drives the No. 12 car.

"I pulled a late block — close, close, close block, and it just sent it around," Wallace said. "It's not the 12's fault. ... I hate that I caused that one."

For Blaney, he had a hard time being mad at Wallace, who was defending a position that in some ways couldn't be defended without being wrecked. 

"You never want to have someone turn off the front end of your nose no matter what the situation is," Blaney said. "Obviously, you don't want to do that to a friend.

"But everyone is a competitor out there. ... It definitely stinks when it's your buddy. Maybe if it's somebody you don't really like too much, you wouldn't blink an eye at it."

Blaney led a race-high 47 laps. Wallace led 35 and finished 28th.

"When I seen the 12, I was pumped," Wallace said about seeing Blaney in his mirror. "We work well together obviously every speedway race. That's just the way it goes. Not the 12's fault at all."

Wallace thought he and Blaney could stay 1-2 coming out of Turn 4 to where they would be the two drivers in the best position to battle for the win down Talladega's long frontstretch that includes a slight turn in the trioval.

"I honestly thought that he would leave me high and dry coming back around and just hate it for the team and that's how it goes," Wallace said. "It was our best by far [superspeedway] race that we've ever done so hats off to [my team]. … It was a great day for us, just a crap result."

While he took the blame, Wallace knows he was doing what he had to do to win.

"It was all about defending and you can't let your guard down for one second or you end up in here," Wallace said outside the track medical center.

Blaney acknowledged the same.

"I'm not blaming anybody," Blaney said. "It's just hard racing. As the leader, I would have done the same thing. You're trying to block and maintain the lead.

"But in second, I've got to take every run I can get and keep my momentum. It's just one of those things. It stinks."

Entering the final restart as the leader, Blaney wasn't as confident as he was on the first overtime restart. Two Ford teammates who would have worked with him — Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick — weren't going to be able to help because of damage from the accident in the first overtime. Then Ty Gibbs ran out of gas behind him and the damaged Almirola at the start of the second overtime, which hurt his restart.

"I still felt good about trying to win the race, but it wasn't as clean because we didn't have as many numbers up there," Blaney said.

It was a frustrating feeling considering how much Blaney dominated the final stage. And then when he was behind Wallace, Blaney got another boost of confidence.

"I thought I would get the lead and then you just see what happens," Blaney said.

He never got to see it and the two friends went home frustrated. Wallace is 21st in the standings and is looking for that spark to his season. Blaney is eighth in the standings looking for that elusive win.

And he'll be thinking about this one every single day — at least until he heads to Dover.

"I'm mad we didn't win," Blaney said. "That was the thing that went through my head first."

Thinking Out Loud

NASCAR might want to rethink about having practice at superspeedways. The idea is to save teams money as they wouldn't need a backup car as they shouldn't wreck in one lap of qualifying.

But a little bit of practice can add to the fan experience during the weekend. And it really never hurts to at least shake down the car. Would it be a risk to the car? Yes.

Teams already get to the track Friday for inspection, then they qualify Saturday morning. Adding 15 or 20 minutes for practice before that qualifying, which is done at most tracks, has more positives — including better use of a driver's time than to be there for a couple of days to run just one lap prior to race day — than negatives.

In The News

--Richard Childress Racing will appeal NASCAR's penalty from Martinsville, where it determined the Austin Dillon car had violated the rules on the underwing mounting assembly. NASCAR docked Dillon 60 regular-season points and five playoff points while it fined crew chief Keith Rodden $75,000 and suspended him for two races. The team opted not to defer the suspension pending appeal and had Justin Alexander as crew chief for Talladega and will again this week for Dover.

--NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Blaine Perkins was released from the hospital Sunday, a day after a wild flip Saturday at Talladega. He had climbed out of the car under his own power but was held overnight for further evaluation.

--NASCAR had one if its regularly scheduled meetings with drivers Saturday and the short-track package was a point of discussion. The drivers seem optimistic that NASCAR is working on ways to create more passing, and one of the ways would be less grip. Denny Hamlin said Goodyear is committed to developing a tire that wears more at short tracks. Three drivers head to New Hampshire this week for a tire test that originally was scheduled for Gateway but was moved to New Hampshire about a month ago to work on the short-track package. Brad Keselowski, one of the drivers expected to test, said he didn't expect any aero package changes to be tested at Loudon. Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott will be the other test drivers as each manufacturer chooses who it wants to do the test.

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Stat of the Day

Kyle Busch won 55 times between his 2008 win at Talladega and his 2023 win at Talladega. None of those 55 wins came at Talladega.

They Said It

"There were some wrecks in front of us today. We were able to squeak through, not get caught up in it fortunately, which isn't a whole lot of my luck here. We'll take this one." —Kyle Busch

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.

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