Ryan Blaney, 2023 Cup Series champion and driver of the No. 12 NASCAR Ford Mustang Dark Horse, has gone winless so far in 2025. It looked like he might turn things around at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 23rd, 2025 – at least, until his engine inexplicably blew up late in the race, taking him out of contention without any indication that something was going wrong.
Blaney led 124 of 267 laps at Homestead, the most of any driver that day. His No. 12 NASCAR Ford was in a class of its own, at one point gapping the second-place car by over nine seconds. He had settled into third place during Stage 3, lurking behind the leaders Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson as they scrapped for the top spot, when suddenly, white smoke spewed from the race car as he abruptly lost power.
Blaney wrestled the ailing No. 12 NASCAR Ford onto Pit Road with flames and smoke leaping from the exhaust outlets. His race car had to be retired, and he was ultimately credited with a 36th-place finish among 37 total competitors.
“I didn’t have any warning,” Blaney said in a postrace interview. “It just laid over when I got back to wide-open down the front, and that was all she wrote. It just stinks. We had a really fast Ford Mustang. We led a lot of laps. We lost a little bit of track position there with some stuff on pit road, but got back to third and it was a great race between me and Bubba and Larson. I’m sure Denny [Hamlin] was gonna get back into it.”
To add insult to injury, the result was his third DNF in as many races, following another blown engine at Phoenix followed by a wreck at Las Vegas last week. Ironically, his engine failure at Phoenix also nullified his chances of winning that race after proving he had one of the fastest long-run cars. Clearly, something in the engine shop at Team Penske – Blaney’s NASCAR Ford team – isn’t going quite right.
Comments
Sure it did, it’s a Ford. Next, they’ll be crying to IMSA for another BOP adjustment because they didn’t win again.
Why… why would a NASCAR team cry to IMSA about BOP…?
IMSA BOP affects every competitor. Too fast, they’ll slow you down, too low, they’ll bump power, lower weight, aero alterations etc.
IMSA has nothing to do with NASCAR in that regard.
You’re just sour Ford has won the last 3 Cup championships. Two seasons ago swept all 3 divisions, Cup, Xfinity and Trucks.
And extra upset Chevy runs a car that was cancelled and doesn’t exist
Figure it out bro.
Age old adage – ‘it always runs best just before it blows’!!