RIDGEWAY, Va. — Ryan Blaney nearly pulled off another Martinsville Speedway miracle on Sunday, Oct. 26, in the NASCAR Cup Series.
But then William Byron gave him the bump-and-run with 44 laps to go in the Xfinity 500, powering past the No. 12.
“Just tight, yeah, tight racing,” Blaney said. “I mean, I knew it was going to be three-wide. I was trying to protect. He was taking a run. I’d have done the same thing.”
Blaney had one last shot at the Hendrick Motorsports driver on a restart with 11 laps to go, but Byron pulled away heading into turn 1 and never looked back. The 2023 champion finished second in a race he had to win in order to make the Championship 4.
Blaney had entered Martinsville in similar situations the past two seasons, and he left both times with a clutch win, a grandfather clock and a shot at the title at Phoenix Raceway.
After qualifying 31st, it seemed like that streak was going to end. But then the green flag dropped, and the No. 12 looked blazingly fast.
Blaney carved his way through the field, getting all the way up to seventh by the end of the first stage. It took until lap 272 before Blaney took the lead for the first time, but once he did, the rest of the field’s chances seemed doomed.
However, Byron battled back in the race’s second-to-last green-flag run.
“I knew it was gonna be tough,” Blaney said. “It was kind of the game of, like, all right, who can save a little bit more? I was able to have a couple like the run before, that long one there, start of stage three when I was leading. I thought I had a pretty good rep of like leading the race, setting the pace and seeing what I needed to save early so when I got to lapped traffic, I had some tire left to kind of get around him.
“And I tried to do the same thing, but William honestly had better pace than Denny [Hamlin had the run before], so I had to push a little bit more to kind of keep him behind me. And so that might have played a little factor.
“He [Byron] was able to push me a little bit more, and then I just got to lapped traffic. I knew I was slipping a little bit, but I thought I could maybe maintain, and it was just who picked through lapped traffic better. I just had one kind of rough corner of getting bottled up behind somebody, and he was able to take the opportunity.”
Blaney is known to have a quick temper on the radio, but he wasn’t even mad at Byron in the moment. Instead, all he did was ask his spotter what happened, and after he was relayed the information, he went on about his day.
“I mean, it stinks, but at the same time, I’m really proud of the effort we put in,” Blaney said. “I mean, from starting where we did, picking our way through the field as fast as we did early was really great. Going into this weekend, I kept just saying I just want a shot to win the race, and we had that tonight and it just didn’t really play out.
“But I know we gave 100% of what we had. I mean, nobody left anything on the table with this group, and that’s all you can ask for and that’s all you can do. But the [No.] 24 was just a little better than us, and they got the job done. So you know, props to them. But on our side, I’m just proud of the effort. We put up a good fight, and [it] just wasn’t quite enough.”
Blaney’s Team Penske teammate Joey Logano also failed to make the Championship 4, which means that none of Roger Penske’s cars will be racing for a title next weekend at Phoenix Raceway. For the first time since 2021, a team other than Penske will win the championship.
“I expect at least one of us be in there,” Blaney said. “It stinks we don’t have a shot to go for four in a row for Roger. Roger was here tonight, and [I] was really wanting to see him in victory lane and celebrate it with him. But just not gonna be able to get it done, and the championship streak of Penske ends. But that’s the way it goes, and we just got to rerack and try to be better for next year. That’s all you can do.”
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.