Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones told the media at the Daytona 500 Media Day on Wednesday that their crash in the Feb. 6 Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum had been handled.
One motorist, however, seemed to be more emphatic about it than the other.
Jones claimed that Blaney had not contacted him since the event. Blaney then clarified that he had not.
“I guess it’s resolved,” Jones said. “I don’t know. I guess if I had a problem with someone, I’d talk to them. So, I guess it’s over.”
As for Blaney, he felt there’s nothing for the two to discuss.
“I don’t really have anything to talk to him about,” Blaney said. “I’m over it. I don’t know – it’s funny he thought I was supposed to apologize after I got fenced. Two people are going to think differently.
“No, I haven’t talked to him. I’m over it. It’s in the past and move on from it.”
Blaney’s car hesitated on the track following collision with Jones in the second half of the Clash due to a damaged right rear suspension.
With 36 laps remaining, this prompted a caution. Blaney threw his HANS device towards Jones, who was still on track, after he pulled his car off track and climbed out.
Jones thought Blaney had brake-checked him and “showed it on the track,” according to Blaney’s first comments to Fox Sports. Blaney claimed Jones “destroyed [him] for seventh,” while Jones said Blaney “destroyed [him] for 7th.”
Jones came in fourth place in the race. After repairs, Blaney placed 17th.
Jones said no to the question of whether he was shocked that Blaney, who is normally cool, became enraged at him on Wednesday.
“The way I look at it, if I’m racing somebody and I brake checked them, I guess I’d expect to get wrecked,” Jones said. “It’s not like I meant to take the guy out of the race. I didn’t just intentionally ‘right rear’ him in the wall. Moved up the track and he got into the wall and broke a piece, unfortunately, that took him farther out of the race.
“He’s probably upset about that for sure. He was having a solid run. Obviously, we were kind of moving forward together. Frustrated – I don’t know. I wasn’t, I guess, shocked to see it at all. I knew he would probably be mad at about it. Just kind of waiting on it.”
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Clash, Daytona 500, Erik Jones, IndyCar, Nascar, NASCAR Cup Series, Ryan Blaney