BROOKLYN, Mich. – Ryan Blaney made the most of the choose rule during a late-race restart to emerge as the winner of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan Int’l Speedway.
Blaney, wheeling Team Penske’s No. 12 Ford Mustang, snatched the lead away from Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron during a restart with eight laps left. He then had to play defense for the final laps to hold off Byron and Kyle Larson.
“That is not the ideal way to race, just blocking everybody, but it is what you have to do nowadays and Josh (Williams, spotter) did a really good job up top,” Blaney said. “It is nice to be in victory lane.”
RESULTS: FireKeepers Casino 400
Blaney struggled during the opening portion of the race, but hard work by his Todd Gordon-led crew helped him get back into contention. However, were it not for two late-race caution periods, Blaney likely wouldn’t have visited victory lane.
The first of those cautions came for a light rain shower with 21 laps to go as Byron led Larson, Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch. The rain quickly moved out of the area and a restart came with 14 to go with Byron and Busch on the front row and Blaney lining up second on the bottom.
The green flag waved and Byron held serve at the front thanks to a push from Larson. The battle at that point was behind Byron, with drivers battling three-wide and four-wide for position.
Coming through turns three and four Tyler Reddick washed up the track and stacked up the field, leading to a multi-car melee that included Christopher Bell, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman and Josh Berry all spinning. The caution flag waved for the incident, setting up what proved to be the final restart with eight laps left.
Byron picked the top for the restart while Blaney seized an opportunity with the choose rule to go from fourth to the front row on the bottom alongside Byron. Hamlin restarted behind Byron on the outside, with Kyle Busch restarting behind Blaney on the bottom.
“We were going to be fourth and the front row was open. You have to take the front row. It gave us a shot to win the race,” Blaney said.
Kyle Busch gave Blaney a massive push during the restart, allowing Blaney to roar into turn one with the race lead as Byron and Larson settled in behind him. With six laps left the Hendrick duo traded places, with Larson slipping past Byron to take second.
Larson took multiple looks alongside Blaney, but was unable to get the momentum he needed to make the move stick. With three laps left Byron got back around Larson through turns three and four and began his pursuit of Blaney.
With Blaney doing his best to break the draft, Byron took his final shot going into turns three and four on the final lap. Blaney took the bottom with Byron on the top, which gave Byron a big run coming out of turn four.
Blaney, seeing that run coming, faded low to block Byron’s run. That was enough for Blaney to get to the checkered flag first, .077 seconds ahead of Byron.
The victory was Blaney’s second of the season and marks the first time in his career he has won multiple races in a single season.
“Kyle (Busch) gave us a really good push to get us clear into turn one and then I was playing defense,” said Blaney, who led only the last eight laps. “We were wide open. Especially with Larson and William (Byron) laying back and trying to get runs. That made it tough. It was cool to persevere all day. We didn’t start off very good but we worked on it all day and found ourselves in a spot to capitalize on it at the end and did that.”
Byron said he needed more help from those behind him in order to get a good enough run to challenge Blaney.
“Once you get put three-middle it’s game over, so I gave up the lead trying to protect the top and just didn’t have the loyalty to kind of push me to the lead,” Byron said. “Overall a really good car. The Axalta Chevrolet was really fast. Definitely know we can bring that to the playoffs.”
Larson, fresh off a World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series victory Saturday at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, finished third. Kurt Busch was fourth with Hamlin fifth.
With one race left before the regular season ends, Kevin Harvick became the latest to lock himself into the playoffs based on his point total. That leaves one spot available either on points or via a win next weekend at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
Currently Tyler Reddick holds the final playoff spot based on points with a 28-point advantage over his teammate Austin Dillon. Dillon appeared in a position to not only gain on Reddick, but also race for the win Sunday, but he was eliminated via a crash at the end of stage two after contact with Brad Keselowski.