Ryan Blaney sticks to the All-Star victory; NASCAR regrets the late caution as the race was almost over

FORT WORTH, Texas – The checkered flag was already waving for Ryan Blaney when the warning lights came on just meters before he reached the finish line to win NASCAR’s All-Star race and $ 1 million. He had to get his window net in place again and go two laps more.

NASCAR subsequently acknowledged that it “probably called too early” the last yellow flag.

Blaney’s crew was already celebrating the victory in the pit, and the driver had already lowered the window mesh on his Ford No. 12 after crossing the start-finish line. But the All-Star race must end under green.

“That rule was never passed on to us. I’ve already taken my window net down and it all. My left arm is worn out trying to get the damn thing up again,” Blaney said. “I got it rigged enough for where it was halfway.”

After the caution period, when Blaney fiddled with the net while keeping pace, he stayed ahead through a green-and-white checkered finish. Pushed by his Penske team-mate Austin Cindric on the restart, Blaney was able to stay in front and hold back Denny Hamlin, who finished 0.266 seconds behind.

“I appreciate that NASCAR did not make us go down the pit road to repair it and let me have it cut back again where we could stay out there,” Blaney said.

Hamlin said NASCAR erred on both fronts, first because he himself warned that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. went into the wall at the back of the field.

“Should never have been a yellow in the first place. They put Blaney in the situation he was in. To compensate for that, they let him break a rule. 2 wrongs do not give a right. Blaney W, NASCAR L,” Hamlin tweeted minutes after the race.

“I think, of course, everyone knows we probably called the yellow flag too soon,” Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior VP of competition, told reporters. “The way it works in the tower … we all see and we saw the car and mentioned the car against the wall and immediately drove on the wall down the back. The race director looked up and I’m not sure what he saw, but he put it out immediately. I wish we had not done it. “

Blaney, who said he can understand Hamlin’s frustration, said NASCAR considered the network safe as he was in reverse before the last restart. Blaney said the net was locked and that he had both hands on the steering wheel.

Miller said the window mesh was up and that there was no way for NASCAR to know if Blaney got it 100% locked, but he also could not be sure at that point if he did not get it done.

Cindric finished in third place and Joey Logano, another Team Penske driver, finished fourth. Daniel Suarez, who entered the main event just like Stenhouse through a 16-car open qualifier earlier in the day, finished as number five.

Former NASCAR All-Star winners Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson all crashed out in the second stage.

It was the fourth All-Star victory for Roger Penske’s team. The last one was Logano in 2016.

“This Mustang was a rocket ship,” Blaney said. “I’m really glad we ended up winning it after the last warning … Tonight is going to be fun.”

Busch, the pole-sitter and 2017 winner, was leading as he had a flat right rear tire coming out of the fourth turn on lap 48 late in the second stage. He braked and walked towards the bottom of the front stretch when he was hit from behind by Ross Chastain, who was driving around 185 mph.

Chastain’s No. 1 car drove almost all the way on its left side after the rattling collision before falling back on all four tires and then moving toward the outside of the track and into 2020 All-Star winner Elliott.

“I saw Kyle having a problem with a tire. I guessed to the left and I should have guessed right,” Chastain said.

Elliott said he saw Busch having a hard time and saw Chastain hit him really hard.

“I just did not give him enough space. I knew he would go straight, I just did not realize he would go so far to the right so fast. I just misjudged it a bit,” Elliott said. “It was really avoided on my part. I just messed up a bit and didn’t get the space fast enough.”

Busch was a pole sitter and had led all but one of the first 48 laps before the wreck. His No. 18 car wobbled out of the fourth turn due to a flat right rear tire before braking on the front end.

It came just a few laps on the second stage after Larson, who had won his two previous All-Star starts (2019 and 2021), let loose in the fourth turn and hit the wall hard before slipping through the grass. Larson had not changed tires and had a right front tire go down.

“It just slipped in the middle and took off,” Larson said. “I hate that it happened. I feel like our car was good enough, depending on the restart, as one can not pass at all, especially the manager anyway.”

Busch had led all 25 laps in a cautious first leg after starting from the bar.

Cindric was only at the end of the second segment. Blaney finished second, just as he was at the end of the first stage after starting the race there. Blaney won the third stage in 25 laps and started the last stage in 50 laps ahead with Penske teammates Cindric and Logano, whose team had the fastest pit stop between the second and third stages.

NEXT

The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway next Sunday begins the second half of the 26-race regular season before the 10-race playoff hunt begins. It will be the 14th points race this season.