Ryan Blaney had the best car at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but he did not have an opportunity to win the race. A massive engine failure ended his day with fewer than 60 laps remaining in the race.
The No. 12 Team Penske Ford was in third place as Blaney worked on passing Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace. He suddenly slowed and steered toward the inside SAFER barrier as the caution flag flew. The camera showed a huge plume of smoke billowing from the No. 12 Ford.
"I'm f------ blowing up or something," Blaney yelled over the radio. "You have got to be s------- me. Oh my God! Sorry fellas. It'll go our way eventually, hopefully. Appreciate the fast car."
Ryan Blaney's engine just exploded. That's the second engine failure of the year for the No. 12 team. #NASCARonFS1 pic.twitter.com/UyRwsOXkw7
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 23, 2025
Blaney pulled the No. 12 Ford to his pit stall, where the crew extinguished a fire underneath the car. The tow truck then took the Team Penske car back to the garage while crew members worked on cleaning up a significant amount of fluid in the pit stall.
This incident ended a day in which Blaney had led a race-high 124 laps and won the opening stage. He clearly had the best car in the field even after contact from Chase Elliott on pit road that put him in the wall.
"I didn't have any warning," Blaney told Fox Sports after exiting the race. "It just laid over when I got back to wide-open down the front and that was all she wrote. It just stinks. We had a really fast Dent Wizard Ford Mustang. We led a lot of laps.
"We lost a little bit of track position there with some stuff on pit road, but got back to third and it was a great race between me and Bubba (Wallace) and (Kyle) Larson. I'm sure Denny (Hamlin) was gonna get back into it. It was gonna be a heck of a battle the last 60 laps or so, but it just didn't really work out for us. We'll continue to keep fighting."
This incident at Homestead-Miami Speedway marked the second time in three weeks that Blaney was unable to finish a race due to an engine failure. He scored 13 stage points at Phoenix Raceway on March 9, but he finished 28th after his engine failed.
Blaney has now failed to finish seven races in his Cup Series career due to engine failures. The 2023 Cup Series champion also failed to finish last weekend's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after being collected in a crash.