Ryan Blaney crashes early at Las Vegas, title hopes in peril with last-place finish

Blaney's race came to an abrupt end with less than ten laps to go in the first stage of a critical playoff race

Ryan Blaney’s car sustained significant damage near the end of Stage 1 when a left-front tire went down.

The Penske driver and 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion was running 12th when disaster struck the No. 12 team. He was unable to maintain control as a left-front tire went down, careening into the outside wall.

Blaney limped the car back to the pits before exiting the vehicle, which instantly puts him in a large points hole when looking at the Round of 8 playoff fight -- now 31 points below the cutline.

NASCAR says the car is officially out of the race, so Blaney will finish 38th, scoring just one point. He entered this race 19 points above the cutline. All of his fellow playoff drivers scored stage points, making the situation even worse for him.

"Nope, no warning," said Blaney when asked about the wreck outside the infield care center. "The left-front tire blew into (Turn) 3 and yeah, unfortunate to be going home early."

This is Blaney's eighth DNF of the 2025 season, but his first during the playoffs. The last time he failed to finish a race was at Sonoma Raceway in mid-July.

The only good news for Blaney are the tracks ahead of him in the rest of this round: he has multiple wins at both Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway (three at Talladega and two at Martinsville). Unless his title rivals suffer similar misfortunes, he is likely going to be facing must-win situation.

"Maybe we can look forward to those -- obviously, we have to look forward to them. Not the spot you want to be in. We actually got our car feeling decent there. Was looking forward to keep going but never got it, so yeah, it's pretty simple. We got to win one of the next two weeks. Hopefully, we can rebound and do it."