Ryan Blaney just feels appreciative for the process that got his disqualification from last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway rescinded.
For about 24 hours, it looked as if Blaney would be forced into a must-win scenario over the next two weeks at Homestead and Martinsville to advance into the NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix.
NASCAR initially determined that the left front shock on the Team Penske No. 12 did not conform to the specified minimum length in Cup Series rule book. The Penske organization discussed it collectively on Monday morning and decided to protest because they still found the part to be compliant on their end.
Ultimately, NASCAR found a measuring error within its own process and rescinded the penalty by Monday night, leaving Blaney in position to keep points racing over the next two weeks instead.
“We talked about it internally [on] Monday morning as a group before we went to NASCAR and was able to talk to them,” Blaney said on Saturday morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “I appreciate NASCAR for being receptive to it and talking with us Monday and meeting with the parts at their R&D Center and understanding what the disconnect was between pre-race and post-race.
“That is a sealed part, so (NASCAR officials) Elton Sawyer and Brad Moran were really great to us at being understanding and understanding that there was an issue there with the process, and they were able to fix it. A lot of emotions, but it was nice that it ended up, I think, as it should have.”
Blaney said he kept a pretty level head about himself from Sunday night to Monday afternoon, but mostly because he didn’t entirely understand what had happened. He said he allowed himself to feel optimism once the team told them they would have a strong case to take to NASCAR.
Blaney had originally finished sixth but was still 17 points below the elimination cutline. The disqualification dropped him to 56 points back and needing nothing short of a win over the next two races. Now it’s a more manageable 17 points again.
Through it all, he kept a level head.
“It really didn’t change a ton for me,” Blaney said. “We had a good day at Vegas. It stinks we had a good day and lost points, so that kind of stinks. Then we lost a lot more points that evening. I flew on someone else’s plane, and right when I turned my Wi-Fi on that was the first text I got that we got DQ’d. So then it was like, ‘OK, we have to win one of the next two weeks.’
“Then, when it got rescinded on Monday night, it was just about that it would still be hard to make it, but it isn’t a must-win now. So, it gives you a little more hope. I wasn’t like distraught or anything. That was the spot we were in and had a job to do, but now it is just a change a little bit.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.