Blaney, the reigning series champion, appeared on track for a strong finish and likely to contend for the win after finishing sixth and third, respectively, in the race’s first two stages.
However, as the final stage got underway, Blaney and Preece made contact racing for position on the track and eventually on lap 181 of 276, Preece got into Blaney hard off Turn 2 which sent Blaney’s No. 12 Ford into the wall.
The wreck took Blaney out of contention and he limped home to finish 33rd. Preece was able to continue and ended up 12th – his second-best finish of the 2024 season.
On Tuesday in a Zoom call with reporters, Blaney explained what transpired prior to the wreck.
“TV didn’t show. I used him up pretty good in (Turns) 3 and 4 and and kind of ran him up the race track. I ran him up more than I was planning on,” he said. “I was planning on taking some space and I kind of ran him up more than I thought and got him out of the groove.
“He was rightfully upset with that. I would have been too, and then he got to me a lap later and got into me pretty good. In my mind, I deserved to get used up, for sure, for what I did.
“I was guilty as charged, but I don’t know if I deserved to get junked for what I did, but it’s just one of those racing things. I know why he was upset. I used up a bunch of track and he was mad and he decided to retaliate.”
Ryan Preece, Stewart-Haas Racing, HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang
Photo by: Ben Earp / NKP / Motorsport Images
Blaney insisted he did not believe Preece’s actions were out of line or deserved any kind of NASCAR penalty since he was the intigator.
“He had every right to get back at me. What I did was I ran him up the race track pretty bad and, like I said, I didn’t blame him for wanting to move me out of the way,” Blaney said. “How hard he hit me was a little excessive maybe because it caused me to wreck, but I deserved to get moved in some way for what I did.
“TV didn’t show that I used him up first, so it wasn’t just he ran me over. I used up him pretty big the lap before, so I don’t want it to get skewed to where, ‘Oh, Preece just wrecked me.’
“No, it was deserving for him laying the bumper to me after what I did.”
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