NASCAR: Blaney crashes out of Chase contention

Ryan Blaney needed to complete a Hail Mary on Saturday night in order to make the Chase for the Championship. Instead, he crashed 11 laps in at Richmond International Raceway: a far cry from the victory he needed to make the playoffs in his rookie season.

The 22-year-old made contact with Trevor Bayne on the first lap and that eventually caused a tire blowout that sent him hard into the Turn 2 wall.

"I don't really know what happened to be honest with you," Blaney said. "I thought I was clear. It looked like we were clear and could get down. The No.6 [Bayne] got us in the left rear pretty good and it eventually cut our rear tire down. I don't know. I have to see it but I thought I was clear and he didn't think the same way. It is an unfortunate deal."

Blaney got off to a fast start this spring and still claimed a provisional Chase spot entering the mid-July event at Kentucky Speedway. It was there that he was involved in a crash with fellow rookie Chase Elliott and was later caught up in a big melee during the Brickyard 400 two weeks later.

That left him buried in the championship standings and needing to a win over the next six weeks. He had good runs the past two races with a fourth and 13th and Michigan and Darlington respectively, but needed a win to make the Field of 16.

Blaney says not even getting the chance to see what he had on Sunday will bug him for a while.

"I definitely thought we were clear," Blaney said. "They were telling me we were clear. Apparently the No.6 just came up and got us in the rear. It was probably a stubborn-headed thing by both of us. I should know better than that. It is unfortunate that we didn't get to run to see where our car was going to go. That is the most unfortunate part about this. We didn't even give ourselves a shot at it.

"That is something I will have regret about."