Ryan Blaney Wins At Daytona As Reddick, Bowman Make NASCAR Playoffs
Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman would’ve loved to have won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona on Saturday night, but they don’t mind that Ryan Blaney did.
Reddick and Bowman were on the NASCAR Playoffs bubble heading into the race and either needed to win or for someone who already one to win in order to make the post season.
Blaney, who won at Nashville, finished third in the first stage and seventh in the second, but had to drive from 13th with two laps to go to win the race late.
Blaney’s teammate Joey Logano was leading with 11 laps to go when he spun to bring out the final yellow flag of the race. NASCAR’s new A-post flap did its job to keep Logano from catching air and flipping during the spin.
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Erik Jones took the green flag on lap 153 of the 160-lap race with Justin Haley alongside him on the front row, both drivers looking to win their way into the playoffs.
Cole Custer moved to the front on the final lap with momentum from the outside, but lost it when he tried to pass Haley on the inside, which opened the door for Blaney to pull to the front with a push from Daniel Suarez.
At the line it was Blaney, Suarez, Haley and Custer four-wide as the Team Penske driver crushed their dreams of making it into the playoffs at this cutoff race.
“I think we kind of just took what was given to us. Kind of how we played Stage 1, had to take a lot of gas in Stage 2, and I wasn’t going to make any ground so I went into max fuel save mode to where I could go a little bit earlier than other guys,” Blaney said during his front stretch video after the race.
“Definitely not a traditional way we like to run, we like to lead laps, and couldn’t really get there until the end but got there when it mattered. It’s cool to win here again. I won here a few years ago, and nice to be back.”