Blaney won't make the Chase: "We didn’t even give ourselves a shot at it"

Just 11 laps into the 400-lap race, Blaney made contact with Trevor Bayne and his damaged left-rear tire sent his No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford into the wall, effectively ending any shot he had to make the 16-driver Chase field.

Early night

“I don’t really know what happened to be honest with you. I thought I was clear. It looked like we were clear and could get down. (Bayne) got us in the left rear pretty good and it eventually cut our rear tire down,” Blaney said.

“I don’t know. I have to see it but I thought I was clear and he didn’t think the same way. It is an unfortunate race deal. It stinks we are behind the wall so early in the race.”

Blaney entered the race 17th in points and coming off a pair of strong finishes in the last two races, including a career-best-tying fourth at Michigan. The Wood Brothers team seemed to be gaining some much-needed consistency over the last month.

Accepting some of the blame

Blaney said he should probably accept part of the blame for the incident.

“I definitely thought we were clear. They were telling me we were clear. Apparently (Bayne) just came up and got us in the rear. It was probably a stubborn headed thing by both of us. I should know better than that,” he said.

“It is unfortunate that we didn’t get to run to see where our car was going to go. That is the most unfortunate part about this. We didn’t even give ourselves a shot at it. That is something I will have regret about. All we can do is go on to Chicago and try to do better there.”