Ryan Blaney out early at Talladega following crash to end Stage 2

Blaney was heard on the race scanner saying: “Go ahead and thank the 48 (Bowman) for me, I appreciate it.”

“I don’t think it was much of a push. More of him driving through me,” Blaney told NBC Sports after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. “We just got wrecked once again by somebody else and just ended our day, which stinks and we have to fight back next week.”

Blaney had been running at the front of the field alongside teammate Austin Cindric. The field was four-wide in multiple instances of the opening stages, and did so without incident. Coming to the end of Stage 2, Blaney was shuffled out of his lane as cars went three-wide, leading to the wreck.

“I thought Austin and I worked well together,” Blaney said. “I had a feeling that the 8 (of Kyle Busch) would pull out and help Chevy. He wasn’t gonna help me, obviously, so we got in the middle. I didn’t think it was terrible. We were probably still gonna run fifth or sixth, and then the 48 just drove straight through me in the tri-oval. He just wrecked the (expletive) out of me. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

Blaney was recorded with a 39th-place finish in a 40-car field. He leaves Talladega 25 markers clear of the elimination line after a 23-car wreck with five laps to go collected several playoff contenders. William Byron was the only driver to advance to Round of 8 on points after non-playoff driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the race.

Sunday’s race was the second of three events in the Round of 12, and the postseason field will be trimmed down to eight championship-eligible drivers after next weekend’s round finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.