Blaney rides “roller coaster of emotions” to playoff berth

When the race – which was originally postponed from Saturday night – got halted again on Sunday after 139 of 160 laps, Blaney was multiple laps down and would have been the first out of the playoffs.

The weather situation appeared dire and it looked like that’s the way the race would end. But after waiting nearly 3½ hours, the skies finally cleared, the track was dried and the race resumed.

With so many cars damaged or wrecked out from a Lap 145 pile-up, Blaney was able to gain positions in the running order after the restart, while Martin Truex Jr. lost several due to damage to his No. 19 Toyota.

When the race ended, Blaney had three more points than Truex and became the only driver (of 16) to earn a playoff berth without a victory.

Any other season, Blaney season thus far – three poles, eight top-five and 12 top-10 finishes – would be considered a success even without a victory.

But with 14 of the 16 playoff spots already claimed by drivers with wins, there was going to be little room for error for Blaney’s No. 12 team at Daytona.

“We’re very fortunate. That’s for sure,” said Blaney, who did finish third in points in the regular season standings. “It was not a good day getting going and getting (in a wreck) early (Lap 31). At that point our fate was not really in our hands.

“All we could do is try to keep working on it and fix it to where we could make laps. Thankfully, we were able to get enough cars (passed) throughout the wrecks that we kind of just kept moving up and were able to get in.”

Blaney, who recently signed a multi-year contract extension with Team Penske, said the experience was far more stressful than he had wanted.

“Really throughout the race when we got on our wreck so early, you try to stay optimistic. You know, you never know what can happen,” he said. “Whether it’s a new winner or we can still try to beat (Truex) on points, you just try to stay optimistic and in the game.

“Just not think about the negatives. Even though it’s really easy to think about the negatives, you try not to. Definitely a roller coaster of emotions, and luckily it ended on a high for our group.”

Truex becomes the highest ranked driver in points (fourth) to miss the playoffs since the current format was adapted.

At the conclusion of the regular season, he had the most stage wins, 12 top-10s and the second-best average finish (13.2) of all drivers.