It took seeing the checkered flag twice, but Ryan Blaney left Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday night as the winner of the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race.
But he came very close to not making the trip to victory lane at all.
Blaney had almost a three second lead over Denny Hamlin as he approached the checkered flag. Just before crossing under the flagstand, race officials threw the caution for the car of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. getting into the wall off turn two, although the incident seemed self contained and out of the way.
That set up an overtime finish for the non-points paying special event. But the problem for Blaney was he didn’t know the race wasn’t over, and had already taken down the window net in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to celebrate.
Unable to come to pit road for fear of forfeiting his track position, Blaney worked diligently to get the net secured again before the race restarted.
Back under green, Blaney again pulled into the lead, and held off Hamlin over the final two laps in overtime to take the win.
“We were cruising there and I just wanted to get to the white to have it covered and then the caution came out off of four,” Blaney said. “I thought it was like any other race. That rule was never kind of relayed to us. I already took my window net down and everything. My left arm is worn out from trying to get that damn thing back up. I got it rigged up enough to where it halfway stayed. I appreciate NASCAR for not making us come down pit road to fix it and letting me get it clipped back again to where we could stay out there.
“This Mustang was a rocketship. I am really glad we ended up winning that after that last caution. I am so proud of everybody. Tonight will be fun.”
It marks Blaney’s first All-Star Race win, netting him a $1 million winner’s check.
“I felt like I was good on restarts, it just felt like the bottom launched better,” Blaney said. “It was a lot about the push and luckily the last restart Austin (Cindric) gave me a great push, almost too good of a push because he kind of had me jacked sideways. I missed the corner but was able to get up in front of the 11 (Hamlin). The push was huge. Control of the lane was big, but a good push definitely helps out.”
After winning the third segment of the event, Blaney took the lead at the start of the final 50 lap segment. He and his Team Penske crew made the call not to pit when a caution flew with 28 laps to go when Eric Jones cut a tire and crashed in turn 4.
On the restart, Blaney pulled back to the lead, and continued to pull away even as Hamlin, with fresher tires, powered his way to second.
Blaney held the measure of Hamlin’s fresher tires, using the clean air out front to drive to the victory.
“I feel like some guys had trouble tonight but I felt like our car was probably the fastest all night, honestly,” Blaney said. “The 18 (Kyle Busch) and 5 (Kyle Larson) both looked good but I felt like we were right up there with them. We kind of came here with a little bit of a new mindset on things to try and how to do things and it is nice to know that worked and our car was really fast, so hopefully we can build on this.”
Hamlin finished in second, but had his own take on Blaney’s window net situation.
“You know, it’s tough because he deserved to win the race, but if you mess up and you break a rule – not intentionally, but there’s rules and we have rules in place for safety,” said Hamlin. “My crew chief is taking four weeks off because of safety. I nearly crashed him off of turn two when I got squeezed there. If I send him into traffic and he’s got no window net, then what right? Luckily, that didn’t happen and NASCAR avoids another controversy because there wasn’t a wreck in a car with no window net.”
While Blaney celebrated in victory lane, others wondered what might have been as tire woes sidelined several pre-race favorites.
Defending race winner Kyle Larson was running in second during the first segment of the race when a cut tire sent him hard into the turn four wall, ending his night.
“Just had a right front tire let go,” said Larson. “I got moved up, but I don’t really think that made the (tire) wear any worse. It just let go in the center and took off. I hate that it happened. I feel like our car was good enough, depending on restarts since you can’t pass at all, especially the leader anyways.”
First segment winner Kyle Busch had the lead with three laps left to go in the first segment when he slowed suddenly with a cut tire on the front stretch. With nowhere to go, Ross Chastain slammed into Busch’s slow moving car, sending Chastain’s car into the air. When it came back down, Chastain’s car clipped the passing car of Chase Elliott, sending both crashing into the outside wall.
No one was injured, but all three were done for the night.
“Just when I got to the exit of four, the right-rear went down,” Busch said. “I was trying to limp it around and get it to the bottom of the track. Just got ran over. I don’t know, just tough day for our M&M’s Camry, it was superfast. Just real proud of the guys, everything we had and we were doing it right. Just not able to go out and race for a million bucks right now. Pretty disappointed.”
“I saw Kyle (Busch) have an issue with a tire down,” said Chastain. “I guessed left and I should have guessed right.
“It was a big hit into Kyle. It was a tough break, but we had a fast car.”
“I saw the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) had a problem, and then I saw the No. 1 (Chastain) hit him really hard,” Elliott said. “I just didn’t give him enough room. I knew he was going to go straight, I just didn’t realize he was going to go that far right that quick. I just kind of misjudged it. It was really avoidable on my end. I just kind of messed up and didn’t get the gap shot quick enough.”
Second segment winner Austin Cindric finished in third, with Joey Logano – whose crew won the Pit Crew Challenge portion of the event – in fourth and Daniel Suarez in fifth.
Alex Bowman, A.J. Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski, and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10.
Earlier in the night, Stenhouse, Buescher, and Suarez raced their way into the All-Star race through an Open event for non-qualified drivers, while Erik Jones made the cut through a vote by the fans.
NASCAR Cup Series
Texas Motor Speedway – Fort Worth, TX
NASCAR All-Star Race – May 22, 2022
1. (2) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 140.
2. (16) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 140.
3. (12) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 140.
4. (9) Joey Logano, Ford, 140.
5. (23) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 140.
6. (20) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 140.
7. (10) A.J. Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 140.
8. (22) Chris Buescher, Ford, 140.
9. (18) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 140.
10. (14) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 140.
11. (3) William Byron, Chevrolet, 140.
12. (8) Aric Almirola, Ford, 140.
13. (5) Kurt Busch, Toyota, 140.
14. (7) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 140.
15. (19) Michael McDowell, Ford, 140.
16. (17) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 140.
17. (15) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 140.
18. (11) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 140.
19. (21) Ricky Stenhouse. Jr., Chevrolet, 139.
20. (24) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, Accident, 103.
21. (1) Kyle Busch, Toyota, Accident, 47.
22. (6) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 47.
23. (13) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, Accident, 47.
24. (4) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 36.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 102.62 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 2 Mins, 47 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.266 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 31 laps.
Lead Changes: 3 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: K. Busch 1-47;A. Cindric # 48-54;W. Byron 55-56;R. Blaney 57-140.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Ryan Blaney 1 time for 84 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 47 laps; Austin Cindric # 1 time for 7 laps; William Byron 1 time for 2 laps.
NASCAR Cup Series
Texas Motor Speedway – Fort Worth, TX
NASCAR All-Star Open – May 22, 2022
1. (2) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 50.
2. (7) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 50.
3. (6) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 50.
4. (8) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 50.
5. (4) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 50.
6. (12) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 50.
7. (10) Cole Custer, Ford, 50.
8. (14) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 50.
9. (13) Cody Ware, Ford, 50.
10. (15) Garrett Smithley, Ford, 50.
11. (16) B.J. McLeod, Ford, 50.
12. (1) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, Accident, 42.
13. (9) Harrison Burton #, Ford, Accident, 42.
14. (5) Chris Buescher, Ford, Stage 2 Winner, 40.
15. (11) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 25.
16. (3) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, Stage 1 Winner, 20.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 82.518 mph.
Time of Race: 0 Hrs, 54 Mins, 32 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.393 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 8 laps.
Lead Changes: 4 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Reddick 0;R. Stenhouse Jr. 1-20;C. LaJoie 21-31;C. Buescher 32-40;D. Suarez 41-50.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 time for 20 laps; Corey LaJoie 1 time for 11 laps; Daniel Suarez 1 time for 10 laps; Chris Buescher 1 time for 9 laps.
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