Ryan Blaney bummed after running out of gas at Illinois: 'The nut shots keep coming'

Today, Ryan Blaney had a heartbreaker of a NASCAR race. Just when he thought he had it won, it slipped through his hands. His No. 12 Team Penske team misjudged how much fuel they had in the car.

Right before Ryan Blaney took the white flag, his car slowed, unable to continue at race speed due to a lack of fuel. He dropped from P1 to P24 in that single lap. Meanwhile, his teammate Austin Cindric zoomed by for the win.

This all happened after Blaney outlasted Christopher Bell who was about to take the lead when his engine had issues. It looked like he was going to luck out, but then he ran out of fuel.

After the race, Blaney added this is just another mishap on the year.

“They [Austin Cindric and his team] were great, they did a great job,” Blaney said, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “Yeah, happy for that team, I mean obviously, bummed for us. Just the nut shots keep coming here this past month.

“Hopefully, it straightens itself out just proud of the effort have to figure out what happened there if we thought we had more fuel than we did. It’s not like we left it short on purpose, just thought we had more. So we’ll have to figure it out, dig into that, but proud of all of Team Penske today.”

Ryan Blaney said they didn't know they were close to being short on fuel where he would have needed to save gas. He's bummed obviously after another punch in the gut this year. pic.twitter.com/H6BqKPLUw5

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 2, 2024

The results speak for themselves. After four top-5 finishes and a pole award in the first eight weeks of the season, Ryan Blaney has been on a downward trend. It’s concerning giving the lack of speed his teammate Joey Logano has had most of the season, too.

Today was bad luck rearing its head. However, the last few weeks have been a struggle. No top-5s in the last seven races and an average finish of P24 in that time – something has to give for the defending Cup Series champion.

Ryan Blaney falls one lap short

The No. 12 team must have felt confident they had enough fuel. There was no sign that they were going to run short, at least not any that caused concern for anyone on pit road or on the pit box.

One mile was all that came between Ryan Blaney and his first win of the season. Instead, his teammate picks it up, and makes the playoff picture even more complicated since Cindric is outside of the top-16 in points.

No one told Blaney to save fuel or anything. So, it is a shock. There is no doubt that Team Penske knows what they are doing at Gateway. Two wins in three years and they almost had three top-5 finishes in today’s race before Blaney’s issues.

So, Ryan Blaney leaves disappointed yet again. Will this team catch a break this year or will it be a repeat of 2022 when they failed to win a race and made a short-lived run in the postseason? After a hot start to the year, the ship is starting to sink for the 12.