Ryan Blaney Wins All-Star Race, One Million Dollars
It took a little longer than it should have, but Ryan Blaney is $1 million richer than he was when he woke up this morning. The Team Penske driver captured the checkered flag in the wild All-Star race at Texas Motor Speedway. Blaney took the lead on Lap 57 and never looked back, leading the final 84 laps on his way to victory.
The ending of the race was somewhat strange, as he crossed the finish line and began to celebrate. In doing so, the driver of the No. 12 Ford Mustang took down his window net. Officials ruled that the caution flag for Ricky Stenhouse Jr came out just before he took the checkered flag, and there would be a two-lap overtime.
Blaney franticly to get it back up, and NASCAR did not force him to come to pit road to securely fasten it. Ultimately, he got it in position somewhat, and held off Denny Hamlin on the restart to take the win - for real this time.
"It was about to be real bad for us," Blaney said. "I thought the race was over. Everyone thought the race was over and I already had my window net down. I do want to thank NASCAR for letting me kind of fix it and not make us come down pit road. Yeah, that was really tough, and then having to do it all over again after getting that window net back up there. Great car, Jonathan Hassler and everybody on this No. 12 group did a great job."
Blaney's teammates Austin Cindric and Joey Logano finished 3rd and 4th behind Hamlin, with Daniel Suarez rounding out the top five. The rest of the top ten finishers were Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell.
Despite his strong season, Blaney still does not have an official win this year. Ford drivers seem to have a knack for winning non-points-paying races this season. Logano won the Clash, Buescher and Keselowski won the Duels at Daytona, and now Blaney has won the All-Star race. It may not reward points, but it could provide the team momentum heading into the Coca-Cola 600 next weekend.
The second stage of the race was red-flagged after a massive accident on the frontstretch involving Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, and Chase Elliott. Kyle dominated early from pole position but a cut right-rear tire caused him to slow in front of the field, and Chastain had nowhere to go. He clipped the rear of the No. 18 Toyota and went airborne, then slid right into the side of Elliott as they entered Turn 1.
"Just got a flat tire out of Turn 4, right rear is flat," Busch said. "Unfortunate for our guys, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing. We had a really fast race car, a great race car. Led all the laps up to that point, obviously. Disappointing to not be able to finish it out and go race for the million bucks."
Chastain described the heart-stopping moment from his view. "I felt like the driver of the 1 car chose the wrong lane to go," he said. "Our car was tight all night and we were just managing the tightness. I saw Kyle have an issue like a tire down and I guessed left when I should have guessed right. Big hit into Kyle. Didn't think the wall would hurt as bad as it did when I did hit. The good news is that all three drivers were okay.
"I saw the 18 had a problem, and then I saw the 1 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. We'll try again next week."
Stenhouse, Buescher, and Suarez all advanced into the All-Star race through the Open race, while Erik Jones won the fan vote to get in. "We definitely got a fortunate circumstance there getting to go to the front row," Stenhouse said after pole sitter Tyler Reddick had to go to the back of the field. "Our No. 47 Viva Camaro took off really, really strong there. The Kroger team has been working really hard the last few weeks and we’ve been getting results, which is nice. We sat and watched it last year, so it feels really good."
Suarez started the final 10-lap stage in the lead, with Reddick just behind him. The Richard Childress Racing driver spun with nine laps to go, bouncing off the wall and into Harrison Burton. The race restarted with eight laps to go and Suarez led the rest of the way, driving away from Austin Dillon and Justin Haley.
"I wish I only had to run 20 laps but we had to run all 50," Suarez said. "All in all, proud of my guys. Every time I’ve been part of the All-Star race it’s been a lot of fun, but what I love the most is the part about going out there and standing with people and the team, and everyone having a good time."
With the All-Star race now in the rearview mirror, teams and drivers will now prepare for one of the biggest races on the calendar. The next stop is Charlotte Motor Speedway for 600 miles of racing. Coverage for the Coca-Cola 600 begins at 6 PM ET on FOX.
