Ryan Blaney Wins NASCAR Cup Series Atlanta Race
- TSN MOTORSPORTS INSIDER
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
Ryan Blaney, with the strongest car and a stage sweep at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, won the NASCAR Cup race. It just took several more hours than planned and kept watchers guessing until the early moments of Monday morning.
After capturing the pole on Saturday, Ryan Blaney started on pole next to his Penske teammate Joey Logano. Blaney then swept the stages and went on to lead 171 of 260 laps. But between the opening 150 laps of the starting two stages and the checkered flag, rain and lightning came, leading to a three-hour red flag.
uring that time, Blaney, as he admitted to Josh Sims of TNT Sports, took a nap.
He was fresh for the final stage, continuing to lead laps and battle up front, in a battle with Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing. Blaney slapped the wall, bringing concrete and paint into his wheel well without a chance to check it, as at the same time AJ Allmendinger ended up in the wall behind with 29 laps to go. The No. 12 Penske Racing Ford team decided to take the chance and keep Blaney out, as there appeared to be no major damage to the right side of his Ford Mustang or the right-side tires.
On the first of three restarts following Blaney's contact with the wall, he felt a vibration; he raced through it by the next caution, which was brought out when Kyle Larson spun on the front stretch with 20 laps remaining. He was running eighth at the time and got into the wall off of turn four before sliding across the grass.
The race resumed with 14 laps remaining, and Carson Hocevar, who ran up front often through the first half of the race before being cycled back, took the lead on the opening lap.
With ten laps to go, Blaney got a push from Christopher Bell back to the lead.
The top seven danced as they closed in on a finish before a huge hit between Larson, Riley Herbst and Chase Briscoe prompted NASCAR overtime.
Lining up second, the ever-not-serious Hocevar started singing 'Died in Your Arms Tonight' by Cutting Crew, saying it was stuck in his head and that his spotter had played it before the restart.
On the overtime resstart Tyler Reddick pushed Blaney to the lead, with Wallace behind Hocevar, in the Atlanta shuffle Shane van Gisbergen also worked his way shortly into the top five with two laps to go.
Hocevar led, leading to the white flag, and Blaney took the lead on the last lap as the field spread out again. Wallace went below the yellow line and momentarily gained a position in his battle up front, but ultimately crossed the line third, where he was running at the entry to Turn four. Wallace moving from third to second before falling back prompted the penalty.
Per the rulebook, Wallace was penalized and sent to the back of the lead lap, losing his third-place finish and instead being recorded in 29th. Wallace, his crew chief Charles Denike, and the 23XI Racing team director Dave Rogers met with NASCAR officials post-race to review videos of the finish and try to rebuke the penalty. The penalty was withheld, and Wallace ultimately finished 29th.
JGR's Bell, instrumental in pushing Blaney's Ford to the lead on several of the final restarts, finished fifth for the second week in a row and fifth on the season.
Hocevar finished third ahead of Ty Gibbs and Erik Jones.
Shane van Gisbergen finished sixth for his third top-ten on an oval ahead of Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick, who became the first to clinch their spot in the Chase. Hamlin finished in 12th and should join his driver shortly.
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