Following Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway, Team Penske’s Joey Logano was crowned the champion after winning the event.
The remaining Championship 4 drivers were left to ponder what they could’ve done differently to be on the championship stage.
Beginning with Logano’s teammate, Ryan Blaney, the driver of the No. 12 Ford chased down Logano in the closing laps to get within a car length.
However, Logano held on over the final stretch to deny Blaney a second straight Cup Series title.
For Blaney, the difference maker was the final restart with 53 laps to go. While Logano skated away from the field, Blaney was forced to push harder to move from sixth to second before attempting to mount a charge.
“Just got bottled up,” Blaney began. I took sixth. I thought the top was probably the better row, personally, and just got put in kind of a weird aero spot. A lot of guys washed up in front of me there through (turns) one and two, and Joey kind of got clear, and then I only got to fourth.
“That was the outcome. Just Joey got to the lead pretty quick with how the restart went, and it worked out for him. By the time I settled in, I was fourth and had to work my ass off to try to get by the 5 (Kyle Larson) and the 24 (William Byron) and run Joey down, and then I had nothing left. Everything was spent on that car.
“I knew when I was running him down, I’m going to get there, but I didn’t have anything once I got there,” Blaney continued.
“Once you get in dirty air and they can start kind of guessing where you’re going, it just makes it that much harder.”
After a tumultuous race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway where he was a late addition to the Championship 4 following the wall-ride debacle involving Christopher Bell, William Byron brought his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet across the checkered flag in third.
With a lack of speed to contend, Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle elected to run long in the closing laps. However, without a caution flag, Byron pitted for service with 65 laps to go.
The final restart saw Byron rise to second. However, Blaney snagged the runner-up spot with 23 laps to go. Byron’s second Championship 4 appearance in a row would end without a title.
“I know that our No. 24 Axalta Chevy team worked really hard all day, and I feel like we maximized the most part of what we had. We just didn’t quite have enough,” Byron said. “Those guys were just faster than us. We would have a short, little surge there in the middle part of the run, and then they would start to drive away on the short and long runs.
“We just didn’t have enough, but I’m really, really proud of our team. We fought hard. It was a great strategy there in the final stage to do something different, but we just didn’t have enough.”
Regular season champion Tyler Reddick felt the balance on his No. 45 23XI Racing improved throughout the day.
In the end, Reddick was unable to challenge as he finished sixth without leading a lap.
“I feel like Stage Two when we broke out and got right behind the 24, 22 and 12, I thought, ‘OK, let’s see where this goes,’” Reddick said.
“Yeah, over time they kind of got away. I was kind of within range of William and tried to make a move, and it didn’t work out. And then settled back in, and yeah, they kind of steadily pulled away over time. That’s what kind of happened in Stage Three as well,” Reddick continued.
“Yeah, we’ve got to find a little bit more speed, but we made the car better throughout the day. We maintained on pit road. We did all that we could, I think, with it. But certainly yeah, it’s tough when they just get further and further away over time.”