CUP: Ryan Blaney’s championship hopes in jeopardy after last-place finish in Vegas
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT: USA
Ryan Blaney scored the 10th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s South Point 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his #12 Menards / Cardell Cabinetry Ford crashed after 70 of 267 laps.
The finish, which came in Blaney’s 375th series start, was his second of the season and first since June 28, 2025 at Atlanta, 15 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 36th for the #12, the 698th from a crash, and the 766th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 54th for the #12, the 1,080th for Ford, and the 1,436th from a crash.
Since Blaney was last featured in an article on this site, he completed the regular season with six consecutive top-ten finishes, headlined by a thrilling victory in the cutoff race at Daytona, where he prevailed in a photo finish against several Playoff hopefuls. A pair of 4th-place finishes was more than enough to clear the “Round of 16,” and a hard-fought victory at Loudon moved him past the “Round of 12.” He entered Sunday’s race during his fourth three-win season in the last five years as a favorite to advance to the “Championship 4.” But the same Vegas track saw Blaney finish next-to-last in the spring, the result of a grinding multi-car pileup on the backstretch.
This time around, Blaney was one of 38 drivers entered for the 40-car field. In opening practice, he ranked 17th with a best lap of 30.150 seconds (179.104mph). He then improved in qualifying, taking 14th on the grid with a lap of 29.592 seconds (182.482mph).
Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Katherine Legge, returning to the Cup Series for her first run at the Las Vegas track. Legge’s #78 Desnuda Chevrolet was the only car to qualify above the 31-second mark, clocking in at 31.644 seconds (170.648mph). Joining her at the back of the field was Ross Chastain, who had to surrender 15th for unapproved adjustments on his #1 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet.
When the race started, Legge took the green on the outside of the final row with Chastain to her inside. At the stripe, the two were just two-thousandths of a second apart – Legge’s 2.795 second gap to the leader to Chastain’s 2.793. While the cars in front of her stacked-up three-wide entering Turn 1, she still lost a chunk of time to the group by the time the field entered the backstretch. Fighting a loose condition, she was 9.124 seconds back of the lead on Lap 6, then 14.141 on Lap 10. The next time by, Legge scraped the wall off Turn 2. This dropped her more than two seconds back of new 37th-place runner J.J. Yeley in the #44 Epoxy Depo Chevrolet on Lap 16. The spotter reported there was only minor damage to the wrap, and the Goodyear logo scrubbed off her tire. Then on Lap 23, she was first to be lapped when then-leader Chase Briscoe pulled to her inside on the backstretch.
On Lap 33, Ty Dillon was among the first to come to pit road in his #10 Sugarlands x Field and Stream Chevrolet, dropping him to last place. This began a sequence of green-flag stops that saw the position change. Dillon returned to the track two laps down as the now 32nd-place Legge prepared to pit for four tires and fuel. She came in by Lap 38, when Cody Ware took the spot in his #51 Arby’s Steak Nuggets Ford before Legge retook it after her stop on Lap 39. By Lap 67, Legge had fallen 3 laps down and Yeley was again 37th, now showing 2 down.
Heading down the backstretch on Lap 71, Blaney had yet to contest the lead, but was running 12th. He was running the low lane when the left-front tire suddenly went down, pulling his car straight into the outside wall. Blaney sustained heavy right-front damage, then limped down pit road under the ensuing caution, losing a lap in the process. The crew looked over the right side, but soon after, Blaney said, “I can’t drive this to the garage, they’re gonna haul this piece of shit outta here.” He climbed out of the car on Lap 74, done for the day. A tow truck arrived and pulled the Ford behind the wall on Lap 75, where the on-board camera was quickly turned off. NASCAR declared him the first car out of the race on Lap 83.
Ty Dillon retained 37th at the finish after the most controversial accident of the afternoon. Entering Turn 1 on Lap 236, Dillon was told by his crew to pit the next time by. He slowed in Turn 4, but reportedly didn’t signal that he was coming into the pits. Closing fast from behind was then-leader William Byron, whose #24 Relay Payments Chevrolet struck the left-rear of Dillon’s car, destroying both cars and collecting John Hunter Nemechek’s #42 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota. Nemechek managed to climb to 29th. The Bottom Five was completed after a multi-car pileup in Turn 1 on the ensuing Lap 245 restart, where Ty Gibbs’ #54 SAIA LTL Freight Toyota spun up the track, then slid into the path of Cody Ware. Gibbs and Ware were among the four cars eliminated.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #12 in a Cup Series race at Las Vegas since March 12, 2006, when Ryan Newman’s #12 Alltel Dodge crashed in Turn 2 after 88 laps of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
38) #12-Ryan Blaney / 70 laps / crash
37) #10-Ty Dillon / 233 laps / crash
36) #24-William Byron / 235 laps / crash / led 55 laps / won stage 1
35) #51-Cody Ware / 243 laps / crash
34) #54-Ty Gibbs / 244 laps / crash
2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) 23XI Racing, Trackhouse Racing (4)
2nd) Hendrick Motorsports, Kaulig Racing, Penske Racing, Wood Brothers Racing (3)
3rd) Garage 66, Legacy Motor Club, Rick Ware Racing (2)
4th) Front Row Motorsports, Hyak Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, NY Racing Team, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Spire Motorsports (1)
2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (14)
2nd) Ford (11)
3rd) Toyota (7)
2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
