Blaney takes the rough with the smooth in chaotic Clash

Ryan Blaney climbed from his No. 12 Ford Mustang and then made a lap around it to see for himself the battle scars earned from Wednesday night’s chaos at Bowman Gray Stadium.

“I don’t think, Ryan, there’s a whole lot left of your race car,” this reporter said to him.

“Oh my God,” Blaney remarked.

So, how did the Team Penske driver take a car that was, by NASCAR’s official race report, involved in three incidents but seemingly had as much contact as laps run in the Clash to a top-five finish?

“I think all my damage is just from running into spun-out cars,” Blaney laughed. “I t-boned a couple of guys who were already spun out. I think a lot of it happened in the wet; they spin up top, and you’re committed up top, and you literally can’t go anywhere. You can’t avoid (it).

“Yeah, it’s not the prettiest-looking thing. It looked a lot prettier last year, but given the conditions, I’ll let it have a pass.”

Blaney finished third to Ryan Preece and William Byron. It was his second straight top-three finish in the event.

But like the 2025 edition of the exhibition event at the historic quarter-mile in Winston-Salem, N.C., was the star of a different show. Because Blaney, unlike some others, again made it look easy moving through the field and being in contention for the race win. The first half of the race, which was in dry conditions, saw Blaney go from his 16th starting position to fourth place.

“It’s just cars (that are) really good,” Blaney said. “Me and Jonathan (Hassler, crew chief), our mindset coming into here, I think just works for this place. I thought in practice we were pretty good, and in qualifying I couldn’t run like a crazy-fast lap, but in the race my car drove really well and hung on a lot longer than others. A fast race car makes me look really good. It’s easy to drive a fast race car. So, it’s all those guys who prepare this thing, and it’s fun to get to drive it.”

Cold, slick conditions made for a long second half at Bowman Gray. Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

The second half of the race was when Blaney’s No. 12 became a magnet for damage, although he wasn’t alone as drivers fought a suddenly slick racetrack because of rain and sleet. It was at lap 102 when NASCAR threw the halfway break caution and before the race restarted, the weather moved in and changed the dynamic of the event.

Cup Series teams were made to switch to wet-weather tires, and the slipping and sliding began. There were 13 cautions in the second half of the race.

Blaney went from being one of the fastest cars on track to backtracking as he and the car adjusted to the changing conditions. The back and forth eventually netted out to where Blaney was back inside the top 10 when NASCAR called for the field to refuel for the final stretch of race. He moved to second place off the final restart with 19 laps to go before fading to a third-place finish as Preece drove away, and he battled with Byron.

“It was just a crazy, odd race,” Blaney said. “I thought we were by far the best car in the first run of the race; come from 16th to fourth, and just not really pushing the issue. I felt really good about our car. I just wanted to kind of get some good track position for the second stage, and then it rained at the break. I was a little nervous when we put rain tires on and you can’t do adjustments because I’m like, ‘What my car does really good in the dry will be awful in the wet.’ And that’s what it did. I went straight to the back and was just in the way.

“Then once the dry lane kind of started forming, it got better. My car kind of did good in the dry. It kind of came back compared to other guys. But it was crazy. I’ll tell you, the last couple of years we had to take the provisional to get in this thing and ran second and third and I was like, ‘Man, this year, let’s just not start last. I think we win it.’ We finally don’t start last and it rains and was just a wacky race. Overall, proud of the effort and everybody sticking with it.”