NASCAR
Ryan Blaney Wins His Way into Round of 8 with Third Talladega Triumph
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Another Playoff driver is sleeping easy heading into elimination weekend, after Ryan Blaney conquers Talladega for the third time. Driver 12 was far from the dominant car of the day, leading only eight laps total and being just out front at the finish. The superspeedway standout adds another checkered flag to his win column though, with two victories now heading to the Round of 8.
Blaney’s first time out front in the Yellawood 500 would be the final lap of Stage 1. Entering turn three, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ran out of fuel. This caused an outside lane stack-up that sent Playoff contender Ross Chastain into the wall. While the 1 was dead last, Blaney had taken the top spot away from teammate Austin Cindric mere seconds beforehand.
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The Chastain crash was amazingly the first trouble of the afternoon, coming in spite of absolutely cutthroat two and three-wide racing. Stage 2 also ran in its entirety clean and green, with this victory going to another Ford in Brad Keselowski.
The RFK Racing owner quickly went from hero to zero at Talladega though, being taken out late in Stage 3. Keselowski tried bump drafting Carson Hocevar through the trioval, sending the No. 42 spinning and into the paths of other drivers. The out of control cars came back up the track into Keselowski, prematurely ending the 6’s day.
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Only one more brief debris caution slowed the hungry pack, the last 13 laps were ran without stoppage. Stewart-Haas Fords and Hendrick Chevrolets both swapped the lead amongst themselves, as both Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott were going for a maiden 2023 win.
On the last lap, Harvick had control but Blaney undercut him into turn three. The 4 and the 12 remained door-to-door to the checkered flag, but Harvick lost drafting help in the final few hundred feet. Riley Herbst was spun from his spot behind the 4, allowing Blaney to just squeak ahead at the line. Blaney’s margin of victory for his Talladega trifecta would be a slim 0.012 seconds.
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“It was a pretty wild restart, but let alone the last couple of laps losing momentum and getting it back, just getting clear to the bottom to get to the front row and drag race it out with Kevin (Harvick),” Blaney said. “I’m just proud of the whole 12 group. Pennzoil, Menards, BodyArmor, Dex Imaging, Advance Auto Parts, Wurth, everybody who makes this possible. To win here three times at Talladega is super cool. I have to give a big thanks to Riley Herbst. He did a really good job there the last couple restarts. He doesn’t have a lot of Cup starts, but he did a great job and pushed me so thanks to him. This is so cool.”
“I’ve won it by more than I have the last couple years. That one might have been by four feet, the others were by two but you just don’t know. You just kind of drag race a line and hope you get help. William (Byron) gave me a pretty good shove on the bottom. He was kind of forced to, but I wasn’t sure until Josh (Williams, spotter) said something. Josh did a fantastic job on the roof like always. This is always such a special place to win at so I can’t wait to drive to Victory Lane.”
Behind Blaney, the Talladega top-10 finishers were: William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Corey Lajoie, Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, Chase Elliott, Ryan Preece, Riley Herbst and Daniel Suarez. Hear from some of these drivers below.
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The Playoff standings now see 10 drivers going for the final six spots in the Round of 8. Denny Hamlin is perhaps the only driver safe on points; everyone else is dreading next Sunday’s elimination race. See the full updated standings below.
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Four drivers will be cut from the championship fight after the Charlotte Roval next week. The sixth-annual Bank of America Roval 400 will go green Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. The sixth and final road course of the season is sure to be drama-filled, with Playoff pressure pegged.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Noah Lewis/TSJSports
