Another week, another late-lap heartbreak for Ryan Blaney, who finished 19th at Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

Blaney, the No. 12 Ford driver for Team Penske who led the second-most laps Sunday, was running in second place behind eventual winner Alex Bowman with five laps to go when he said he felt his car vibrating. That forced him to pit for a tire change, dashing his hopes for a top-10 finish for the second week in a row.

“Racing happens,” said Blaney, grandson of the late Lou Blaney, a multiple points champion at Lernerville Speedway. “Just corded a right rear (tire) there at the end and gave up a good finish.”

The rubber on that tire had been run down to the inner threads, causing the vibration. Blaney ran a consistent race overall, winning the second stage and leading 54 of the 200 total laps (Bowman led 110).

As Blaney has done in the previous two races, he ran at the front of the pack for a majority of Sunday’s race, but when those final few laps came around, disaster again struck.

“Just lost the lead and they got (Bowman’s) better,” Blaney said. “I just kind of got too loose at the end there.”

Last week, it was a late-lap call to pit that took Blaney out of contention for the win and caused him to finish in 11th place. He was leading when a caution was called with six laps to go. When he pitted for a tire change, his Penske teammate Joey Logano did not. The call allowed Logano to soar to his first victory of the season, while Blaney watched from the back of a pack of cars that all pitted.

Blaney’s crew chief Todd Gordon apologized for the call after the race.

“I should have left you out,” Gordon radioed to Blaney. “My gut told me to. I didn’t. My bad.”

The week before, Blaney was involved in the devastating wreck in the last lap of the Daytona 500.