Ryan Blaney wins over Denny Hamlin at Pocono Raceway, second win of the season
For the second time in his career, Ryan Blaney is a winner at Pocono Raceway. He outlasted Denny Hamlin down the stretch to do it. The defending NASCAR champion has his second win in five weeks.
Pocono Raceway is where Ryan Blaney earned his first-ever Cup Series win. He was with Wood Brothers Racing. Now, with Team Penske, he does it again and does it comfortably.
Blaney stayed in it all day, was patient, and his pit crew executed the strategy to perfection. He came out on top of Denny at the Tricky Triangle.
A ton of cautions near the end leveled out the strategy game, but the track position the 12 team had was undeniable. Blaney put it out front and didn’t look back.
Tricky Triangle plays tricks early in Stage 1
This race had barely started before we had the first caution of the day. Noah Gragson lost control of his car and went around and into the wall. It was enough to knock him out of the race.
At the speeds they reach at Pocono, almost any contact with the wall will take out a car. It’s a place that has historically had hard impacts and memorable wrecks. Gragson’s mistake cost him his day as he was out early.
Martin Truex Jr. was able to lead his teammate Denny Hamlin to the line for the Stage 1 victory. It was a positive step for this 19 team who has not seen a lot of laps out front since early in the season.
Kyle Busch had a day that started rough and only got rougher.
Denny Hamlin reminds everyone it’s his track
The seven-time winner was not going to be held out of the lead for the entire race. Denny Hamlin knows this track well and he had to remind everyone just who has won the last two races at the triangle.
Hamlin and the Toyotas were strong. Brad Keselowski showed some speed on his pit strategy. Once he got out front, he really pulled away from the field. All the while, Ryan Blaney stayed in the background.
Ross Chastain wrecked out of the race in Stage 2. In a points battle to make the playoffs, Chastain’s DNF opened the door for Bubba Wallace to pick up a ton of points on the bubble. It’s getting interesting on the cutline.
Denny Hamlin was great, he put his car out front and didn’t look back. Chase Elliott poked his head in there for P2 in the stage. Erik Jones hung around to snag stage points in P5 as well.
Cautions breed cautions and Ryan Blaney prevails
The final stage is where things got messy, or should I say tricky? Cautions breed cautions and that was very clear in this final stage. It all started with Todd Gilliland going into the wall early in the final stage.
Then it was Corey LaJoie wrecking Kyle Busch who wrecked a few others. It was a wreck that the No. 7 team did not seem very remorseful about. Apparently the 8 car had been giving LaJoie a hard time for a while and got what was coming to him. Busch shrugged it off, nothing can bother him after five DNFs in seven races.
Four drivers, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Chase Elliott, and Daniel Suárez were caught speeding on pit road in Stage 3 and were taken out of contention.
Once John Hunter Nemechek, Zane Smith, and Michael McDowell were done wrecking, Ty Gibbs dumped oil and water mixture all over the track when his engine gave out. This is where Ryan Blaney was able to start going to work.
Finally, with green flag racing down the stretch, Blaney got out to a comfortable lead and pulled away. It was a drama-free run to the flag as Denny Hamlin didn’t have enough to catch Blaney. Last week’s Chicago winner, Alex Bowman, was P3.