Rookies Elliott and Blaney collide at Kentucky

On Lap 88 of 267 in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400, rookie Ryan Blaney got stuck in the middle lane between fellow rookie Chase Elliott on the top and Greg Biffle on the bottom.

Entering Turn 3, Blaney and Elliott made contact, sending both into what looked like a choreographed spin and both then slammed into the wall.

Both drivers took their respective cars to the garage for repairs.

The incident was particularly troublesome for Blaney’s No. 21 Wood Brothers team, which has been hovering in the cutoff position to make the Chase on points, but will take a big hit from this incident.

Elliott also came into the race without a victory but was eighth in the series standings, comfortably in the 16-driver field.

“Just being top of (Turn) 3 and there is really not enough room to be three-wide, so I heard at the last second we were three-wide and I had a feeling that we were just because we got bottled up there off of (Turn) 2,” Elliott said in the garage after the incident.  

“I tried to give as much room as I possibly could to stay at the top of the black and out of the grey. I didn’t know how much further out I could get without wrecking myself without any help. I guess Ryan just got loose and got us, but that is racing.

“The good news is we had another fast car, the bad news that is the third bad week in a row. We will try to regroup and go get them wherever we go next.”

Blaney said the restart was “pretty hectic” and it all went downhill from there.

“Martin (Truex Jr.) got loose and it kind of put everybody in a bad spot, and it wound up with us being in the middle of three-wide into (Turn) 3,” he said. “It’s so hard to get into that corner all night with a car close to behind you and outside of you, and no one lifting either, and it’s just an unfortunate spot we got put in.

“I hate to see two really good cars get tore up. We were both very fast tonight and it’s just an unfortunate deal, but we’ll try to get it fixed and get back out there and make some laps.”