NASCAR Cup Series: 8 notable drivers who still haven’t won in 2018
By Asher Fair
Ryan Blaney
In his first NASCAR Cup Series race as a Team Penske driver, Ryan Blaney was dominant. This year’s Daytona 500 was his to lose, as he led 118 laps of the 207-lap race. No other driver led more than 22 laps of it. However, he failed to win it, as he was involved in a late accident and ended up finishing in seventh place.
Since then, Blaney, Team Penske and the top Ford drivers and top Ford teams as a whole have had a ton of speed. However, the driver of the #12 Team Penske Ford has also experienced a number of missed opportunities, and that is the reason why he is still looking for his first victory of the 2018 season.
There have been several races this season during which Blaney has run up front, then a few minutes later, he is being interviewed after coming out of the infield care center. There was even a recent 11-race stint during which he finished higher than 18th place just three times and he finished in 34th or lower five times.
The speed that Blaney, who currently sits in 10th place in the championship standings, has had this year has allowed him to lead the fourth highest amount of laps so far this season behind only the laps led totals of the “big three”, including Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., but he has been unable to capitalize on that speed by winning a race. When will this change?