KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Ryan Blaney, who won last weekend’s race at New Hampshire to be the first driver to advance to the Round of 8, crashed early in Cup practice Saturday at Kansas Speedway.
The team confirmed that Blaney’s team will go to a backup car for Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET on USA Network).
Michael McDowell will be without his crew and face additional penalties after an inspection violation with his car at Kansas.
“We blew a tire, so we’ll have to look at it and see why that was,” Blaney said. “I hate that we crashed a race car and stuff like that, but we’ll take a peek at what we need to do differently and hopefully come from the back (Sunday). I’m looking forward to getting the race going.”
Asked if low air pressure contributed to the issue, Blaney said: “I wouldn’t say I really had any feel of something kind of off until right before it went, honestly. It kind of had that normal feeling to it until it blew. That’s kind of the hard thing about when you blow tires like that. They don’t feel way off and then they just kind of give out the next moment, so I didn’t have any kind of caution beforehand.”
Team Penske teammate Joey Logano had a tire go down during practice. He pulled the car off the track and had no wall contact.