For Ryan Blaney, it was worth the wait.
Blaney muscled his way around Ryan Newman moments after Newman had taken the lead on the final lap, and edged out the veteran driver for the win by inches at the finish line at Talladega Superspeedway on Monday.
The race had been postponed after 57 laps on Sunday due to rain, and was completed Monday afternoon.
“I have been coming here ever since I was really young and watched my dad run here a lot and watched him run pretty good here a lot,” Blaney said. “I got to drive for the Wood Brothers here. It is a cool feeling.”
It’s the third career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory for Blaney. More importantly, it locks him into the Round of 8 of the Playoffs after coming into the day needing a win to make the cut in next weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway.
Blaney had taken the lead just before a huge crash with just a few laps left brought out the final caution and the red flag. When the race went back under green with two laps remaining, Blaney surged back out front. With half a lap to go, Newman had a huge run on the outside line with help from behind from Denny Hamlin. As the field roared into turn 3, Newman surged to the lead.
But Blaney battled back to the inside as they field raced into the tri-oval, setting up a drag race to the finish line. The two bounced off each other racing to the checkered flag, with Blaney getting the win by about a foot.
“That big push that Newman and the 11 (Hamlin) got I knew I wasn’t going to be able to block it,” Blaney said. “They were coming so fast and they wanted to split me. I wanted to stay to the bottom and kind of pulled the 11 off the 6 (Newman) and then had a big enough run to get to the six. We kind of hit above the line and that pushed me below the line. That is a big judgment call. You never know. I definitely wasn’t going to go below the line before we made contact.”
The win came one day after Blaney spun on pit road during the first segment of the race, putting him in a catch up position when the race resumed on Monday.
“Yeah, it was an amazing effort the last two days to be honest with you,” he said. “We spun out early yesterday and missed some big ones today. We were able to weave our way through. I can’t thank Aric Almirola enough for helping me out there at the end.”
Newman said it was disappointing not to win after being so close.
“I’ve been that close here before,” he said. “Quite a few years I’ve tried, but just crazy racing and proud to get our Wyndham Rewards Ford a good finish. I’m disappointed obviously we didn’t win – to be that close. It’s part of racing. I’ve always said you’ve got to lose some that way before you can win some that way, and I guess our wins are coming.”
Coming to the checkered flag, Chris Buescher and Parker Kligerman crashed behind the leaders, sending the rest of the field scrambling. It was the last of a flurry of crashes on the day.
The first major incident came on lap 106. Alex Bowman was leading when Joey Logano got a huge run down the backstretch. Bowman attempted to throw a block, with Logano making contact with him. That sent Bowman spinning, gathering up Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex, Jr. and Kyle Larson, among others.
“After watching it, I just didn’t realize how fast the 22 (Logano) was coming there,” Bowman said after seeing a replay of the accident. “I probably shouldn’t have even attempted to block that. He was a solid chunk faster than us, so that’s on me. It’s part of Talladega and superspeedway racing. It’s really unfortunate for our team. I apologize to the other guys that got taken out in that.”
The second big crash broke out on lap 163 when William Byron spun on the backstretch off the front bumper of Kurt Busch. Byron spun up into the pack, gathering up Logano, almost sending Logano’s Ford airborne. Matt Crafton, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece and Joey Gase were also involved. Logano’s car was heavily damaged, but his team made repairs and he was able to continue.
Byron said he wasn’t sure why the push from Kurt Busch didn’t work.
“Obviously, our noses are pointed and it just jacked me right up and turned me around,” he said. “I have to look at it. Yeah, it just turned me to the inside first. I don’t know what to do different there to get the push better. Just unfortunate for us. We had a really good run going. I felt like we were going to at least finish pretty solid. Our car was good, just trying to bide our time. Just unfortunate, for sure.”
The final shunt occurred on lap 182, when Kyle Busch spun off the front bumper of his brother, Kurt Busch, at the front of the field at the end of the backstretch. Kyle Busch’s car then tagged Brendan Gaughan, sending his car for a complete flip in the air, landing on all four wheels.
“Listen, I spent three years in off-road racing and we flip flop,” Gaughan said. “The easiest thing you can do is go upside down, because nothing hits hard. So that’s the nicest thing about it. I haven’t even seen it, but Brad (Keselowski) was pushing the crap out of me and I loved it.”
Several other cars were gathered up, including David Ragan, Matt DiBenedetto, Daniel Hemric, Chris Buescher and Preece.
The crash sidelined both title contenders Kyle Busch and Keselowski, and left the race under the red flag to allow for clean up.
Hamlin finished in third, with Aric Almirola in fourth and Michael McDowell in fifth.
Austin Dillon finished sixth, followed by Corey LaJoie.
Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott came back from the lap 106 crash to finish eighth with a heavily damaged race car.
“We had our ups and downs for sure today,” said Elliott. “Got caught up in that crash but my guys did a nice job of putting it back together as best we could. Just head out West to Kansas now and try to get a win out there. That’s about all we can do now.
“You have to have the mindset to go out there and control what we can control and do everything we can to get a win. That’s all we can do.”
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Ty Dillon rounded out the top five.
Logano soldiered home to an 11th place finish, and unofficially finds himself in eighth in the points standings, 18 points above the cutoff line. Alex Bowman sits in ninth. Elliott, Clint Bowyer and Byron round out the top 12, and likely will need a win next weekend at Kansas Speedway to make the Round of 8.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Talladega Superspeedway – Talladega, AL
1000Bulbs.com 500 – October 14, 2019
1. (9) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 188.
2. (13) Ryan Newman, Ford, 188.
3. (40) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 188.
4. (5) Aric Almirola, Ford, 188.
5. (22) Michael McDowell, Ford, 188.
6. (20) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.
7. (33) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 188.
8. (1) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 188.
9. (7) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, Ford, 188.
10. (21) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.
11. (10) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 188.
12. (34) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 188.
13. (16) Matt Tifft #, Ford, 188.
14. (25) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 188.
15. (32) Parker Kligerman(i), Toyota, 188.
16. (14) Paul Menard, Ford, 188.
17. (15) Kevin Harvick (P), Ford, 188.
18. (30) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 188.
19. (26) Kyle Busch (P), Toyota, 188.
20. (23) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, Accident, 187.
21. (29) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 187.
22. (38) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 187.
23. (8) Clint Bowyer (P), Ford, 186.
24. (27) Darrell Wallace, Jr., Chevrolet, 185.
25. (6) Brad Keselowski (P), Ford, Accident, 182.
26. (18) Martin Truex, Jr. (P), Toyota, 182.
27. (28) Brendan Gaughan(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 181.
28. (24) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 181.
29. (17) David Ragan, Ford, Accident, 181.
30. (31) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, Accident, 181.
31. (35) Blake Jones, Chevrolet, 179.
32. (19) Daniel Suarez, Ford, Accident, 168.
33. (3) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 162.
34. (11) Erik Jones, Toyota, Accident, 162.
35. (37) Austin Theriault, Ford, Accident, 162.
36. (36) Joey Gase(i), Toyota, Accident, 161.
37. (2) Alex Bowman (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 106.
38. (4) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Accident, 106.
39. (12) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 106.
40. (39) Spencer Boyd(i), Chevrolet, Engine, 53.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 136.644 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 39 Mins, 35 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.007 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 43 laps.
Lead Changes: 47 among 19 drivers.
Lap Leaders: B. Keselowski (P) 1-4;K. Busch (P) 5-6;A. Dillon 7;K. Busch 8-18;R. Blaney (P) 19-33;E. Jones 34;A. Almirola 35;B. Keselowski (P) 36-40;R. Newman 41-43;B. Keselowski (P) 44-45;K. Busch 46;C. Elliott (P) 47-49;D. Hemric # 50;W. Byron (P) 51-53;J. Logano (P) 54;W. Byron (P) 55-58;B. Wallace 59;R. Blaney (P) 60-72;J. Logano (P) 73-77;C. Elliott (P) 78-83;B. Keselowski (P) 84-86;C. Elliott (P) 87-89;B. Keselowski (P) 90-93;A. Almirola 94-95;J. Johnson 96-97;C. Elliott (P) 98-101;J. Logano (P) 102-103;C. Elliott (P) 104-106;C. Bowyer (P) 107-111;C. Buescher 112;B. Keselowski (P) 113-116;W. Byron (P) 117;C. Bowyer (P) 118-125;K. Busch (P) 126;J. Logano (P) 127-133;A. Theriault 134;R. Stenhouse Jr 135-142;J. Logano (P) 143;R. Stenhouse Jr 144-150;K. Busch (P) 151-153;L. Cassill(i) 154;W. Byron (P) 155-159;R. Stenhouse Jr 160-175;K. Busch 176-179;R. Stenhouse Jr 180;K. Busch (P) 181;R. Blaney (P) 182-188.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Ryan Blaney (P) 3 times for 35 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr 4 times for 32 laps; Brad Keselowski (P) 6 times for 22 laps; Chase Elliott (P) 5 times for 19 laps; Kurt Busch 3 times for 16 laps; Joey Logano (P) 5 times for 16 laps; William Byron (P) 4 times for 13 laps; Clint Bowyer (P) 2 times for 13 laps; Kyle Busch (P) 4 times for 7 laps; Aric Almirola 2 times for 3 laps; Ryan Newman 1 time for 3 laps; Jimmie Johnson 1 time for 2 laps; Austin Theriault 1 time for 1 lap; Daniel Hemric # 1 time for 1 lap; Austin Dillon 1 time for 1 lap; Chris Buescher 1 time for 1 lap; Bubba Wallace 1 time for 1 lap; Erik Jones 1 time for 1 lap; Landon Cassill(i) 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 24,22,88,17,2,42,48,41,1,12
Stage #2 Top Ten: 14,22,2,3,41,12,37,24,1,18
Top 12 in Points: 1. Denny Hamlin – 3114 (4 Wins); 2. Martin Truex, Jr. – 3106 (6 Wins); 3. Kyle Busch – 3099 (4 Wins); 4. Kevin Harvick – 3094 (3 Wins); 5. Brad Keselowski – 3078 (3 Wins); 6. Joey Logano – 3076 (2 Wins); 7. Kyle Larson* – 3069 (1 Win); 8. Alex Bowman – 3058 (1 Win); 9. Ryan Blaney* – 3056 (1 Win); 10. Chase Elliott – 3054 (3 Wins); 11. Clint Bowyer – 3052; 12. William Byron – 3049.
*Locked into the Round of 8
