Michael McDowell got into a wreck with Ryan Blaney during the final laps of the Cup Series race at New Hampshire, and showed remorse for Blaney’s day being “ruined”. While speaking to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, McDowell revaled what he told Blaney after the race.
“I was in a do-or-die situation and I had to go for it,” McDowell said. “I know it was a low-percentage move, but I had to try. All the guys that went to the bottom, and one and two on those restarts got freight trained, so I knew I needed to enter in the middle. I just got the left sides on the wet paint and it just kind of took off.
“I hate it for Blaney. I know it runined his day, it runied my day too and I apologized to those guys for that. But I’m at point in the season where I have to go for it too. You don’t know until you get there, and I was just in there a little too deep.”
Ryan Blaney sounds off on Michael McDowell
Before the wreck Blaney was in a good position to compete with eventual winner Chirstoper Bell. Instead, the 2023 Cup Series champion ended his day with a P25 finish due to the wreck. After the race, Blaney reacted to McDowell wrecking him.
“I know he’s got to win and all that and that’s his excuse but you have to like calculate, be a little more calculated than that and just stinks that we’re at the expense of it,” Blaney said. “But man, I thought we had a decent shot to like contend. I was happy because we came in, put tires on, made a big adjustment and I was looking forward to kind of restarting behind Bell and seeing if we could have anything for him and just never really got a chance.”
McDowell has had a solid year but needs a win to secure a spot in the playoffs. He has five top-five finishes, including a P2 finish at Sonomoa. McDowell’s last victory came last year when he took first place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Blaney has a spot in the playoffs after earning a win at Iowa Speedway last week. Along with the win, Blaney has six additional top-10 finishes. He entered Sunday’s race eighth in the Cup Series standings.
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