Track: Daytona International Speedway
Race: DAYTONA 500
Date: February 19, 2023
Ryan Blaney | No. 12 Menards/BlueDef/Peak Ford Mustang
Start: 7th Stage 1: 20th Stage 2: 33rd Finish: 8th Laps Led: 1
Race Rundown: Ryan Blaney fought his way back from two laps down to secure an eighth-place finish in the 65th running of the Daytona 500 Sunday afternoon. After green flag pit stops cycled in Stage 2, Blaney's No. 12 Ford Mustang came off pit road in second place behind teammate Joey Logano as the field began to come back together. On lap 118, Blaney was collected in an incident in turn four resulting in significant right-side damage that required several trips down pit road under caution.
On lap 140, Blaney had a right-front tire go down in turns three and four to bring out the caution as the No. 12 team continued to make repairs to the right side. As he continued to log laps in the final stage, Blaney benefitted from multiple late-race cautions to get back on the lead lap on lap 197 and was scored 15th heading into the second overtime attempt. Despite getting held up in the race-ending caution on the second green-white-checkered try, Blaney came away with an eighth-place finish.
Blaney's Thoughts: “You know, unfortunately getting tore up in the second stage and I thought we did a good job fixing it and staying in it and got a couple of laps back and were able to get it driving decent enough to where we lined up in the top-15 and were able to miss some wrecks and finish okay. I am really proud of the effort to fix it and make it driveable and get a finish. It is unfortunate that we couldn't race for a win.”