TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ryan Blaney beat Ryan Newman in a door-to-door race to the finish line to win Monday at Talladega Superspeedway and advance to the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs.
Blaney’s first win of the season came as he was desperately trying to remain in title contention. The playoff field will be trimmed from 12 drivers to eight next weekend at Kansas and Blaney was in danger of elimination before his Talladega victory.
Ryan Blaney celebrates in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway on Monday. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Blaney joins Kyle Larson in the Round of 8, with six spots still available.
“This was a huge, huge race for us. I’m pumped up. We’re moving on,” Blaney said before spotting a young fan in the crowd wearing his shirt and handing the boy the checkered flag.
The race began Sunday until rain stopped it after the first stage and pushed the finish to Monday. It gave Blaney time to recover from a Sunday spin as he tried to enter pit road, and it gave Ford and Team Penske the victory. Ford had won seven consecutive Talladega races until Chevrolet snapped that streak in April.
“An amazing effort the last two days, to be honest with you,” Blaney said. “From spinning out early (Sunday), missing some big ones today, weave our way through … It just means a ton. I’ve been coming here ever since I was really young. I love coming here. Love it even more now.”
Blaney was the leader on a restart with two laps remaining and had a huge push from fellow Ford driver Aric Almirola to gain space on the field. Then Newman came charging along on the outside line with help from Denny Hamlin and easily zipped past Blaney.
But the Ford train remained committed and Blaney got another push from Almirola to pull alongside Newman. The two raced door-to-door to the finish line, with Blaney winning by a nose. The 0.0070-second margin of victory was the sixth-closest in the history of Talladega, which celebrated its 50th anniversary all weekend.
The win capped a remarkable weekend for the Penske organization, which Saturday claimed the IMSA overall sports car championship with Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya, and then in Australia won the Bathurst 1000 with Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard.
The race had critical playoff implications. Many of the title contenders struggled, and Hendrick Motorsports’ entire lineup is at risk of elimination next weekend. Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and William Byron are all below the cut line, as is Kansas native Clint Bowyer, who could be eliminated at his home track.
Newman was followed by Hamlin in a Toyota. But it was a 1-2 sweep for Ford on a weekend in which manufacturer alliances were heavily scrutinized. Although all the manufacturers met with their teams to discuss strategy and sticking together for the sake of a brand victory, a meeting Sunday between the Chevrolet group angered fans who argued the alliances were a form of race manipulation.
Although the manufacturers have been doing this for at least five years in a Toyota-led effort, Chevrolet didn’t get on board until April after Toyota worked with Chevy drivers from Hendrick Motorsports to go 1-2-3 in the Daytona 500. Chevrolet then won at Talladega and again at Daytona in July, the two tracks where the brand alliances work.
The highest-finishing Chevrolet on Monday at Talladega was Austin Dillon in sixth. Almirola finished fourth in a Ford, followed by Michael McDowell, Dillon, Corey LaJoie, Elliot, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ty Dillon.
NOTES: The race was stopped with seven laps remaining after an accident at the front of the field. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch were side-drafting for the lead when Busch suddenly spun to the right, directly into title contender Brad Keselowski. The chain reaction caused Brendan Gaughan’s car to flip over the car of Kurt Busch and land on its wheels.
“Mother, it is OK, it is just a flip and it didn’t hurt, I promise,” Gaughan said into a television camera. “It was just one easy, quick flip and we put it down.”
Keselowski’s car was destroyed but he got it rolling down pit road for the sole purpose of passing Gaughan and Martin Truex Jr. in the running order, gaining two more points that very well could be needed next week when the playoff field is cut.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.