NASCAR Cup Darlington II

Ryan Blaney car chief ejected after Darlington inspection issues for title contender

It was a rocky start to the NASCAR Cup weekend for the No. 12 Team Penske Ford

Nick DeGroot

Edited: Sep 5, 2026, 10:54 PM

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Ryan Blaney, Team Penske

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

During pre-race inspection for the NASCAR Cup Series at Darlington Raceway, one car struggled to get through inspection. The No. 12 Team Penske Ford of Ryan Blaney failed twice, before passing on the third attempt.

As a result, the No. 12 car chief has been ejected from the track the remainder of the race weekend, and the team has lost their pit stall selection so they will get the 38th and final pit stall available.

They were fortunate as one more failure would have resulted in far more severe penalties, including a pass-through penalty at the start of the race, but they managed to avoid that outcome.

"Yeah, looking like we're going to be only a handful of minutes late to practice, so I think we'll still have plenty of time," said Blaney when speaking to USA Sports while the team worked in the garage. "But, yeah, unfortunate little speed bump. It's hot out. Tolerances are really tight. Everyone, you know, seeing what we can get. But, you know, these guys are going to do a good job trying to figure it out, and I don't think it will affect their practice as much."

Blaney ended up not being late at all as lightning in the area delayed all on-track activity. He enters the Chase as the No. 2 seed in the championship standings, 25 points adrift of the lead.

No other Cup cars had any issues during the technical inspection process.

Qualifying was later cancelled due to lightning in the area, putting Tyler Reddick on pole. Blaney will start 24th after a last-lap crash at Daytona hurt him in the weekly metric.

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