Ryan Blaney’s Darlington Charge Ends in Overtime Heartbreak

DARLINGTON, S.C.: Ryan Blaney was just two laps away from capturing his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season when a late caution flipped the Goodyear 400 at Darlington (S.C.) completely on its head.

With around 50 laps remaining, a cycle of green-flag pit stops began. Blaney waited patiently for his chance to bring the No. 12 Dutch Boys | Menards Ford Mustang down pit road for what he hoped would be his final stop of the day.

Running quietly inside the top 10, Blaney wasn’t drawing much attention — until his car came to life, turning laps faster than race leader Tyler Reddick and suddenly becoming a serious threat.

Over the next 30 laps, Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang was the class of the field, consistently lapping Darlington’s 1.366-mile track several tenths quicker than the competition.

With the pace firmly in his corner, Blaney surged into the top five and began closing in on polesitter William Byron and Christopher Bell — both of whom had briefly looked like Tyler Reddick’s primary challengers.

But Blaney had other plans.

He passed both Byron and Bell on the same lap with under 15 to go, inheriting clean air and a clear shot at Reddick.

The gap began to shrink rapidly.

With five laps remaining, Blaney reeled in the No. 45 McDonald’s Toyota and made the decisive pass for the lead on Lap 290.

But just behind him, chaos erupted.

After losing the top spot, Reddick oversteered and smacked the wall, forcing Kyle Larson — already having a miserable afternoon after a Lap 3 crash and nearly two hours in the garage — to check up.

That hesitation left him vulnerable to Bubba Wallace, who plowed into the back of the No. 5 Chevrolet, sending Larson spinning again and triggering the race’s eighth caution.

Blaney, now the leader, had no choice but to pit for fresh tires. But the stop cost him — he exited pit road four spots back, lining up on the inside lane behind Reddick for the restart.

Although Blaney aimed to challenge Denny Hamlin, who won the race off pit road, he instead found himself fighting just to hold position against Christopher Bell, Byron, and a rebounding Reddick.

Lacking the short-run speed needed in two laps of NASCAR Overtime, Blaney slipped to fifth by the checkered flag — still managing to hold off RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher to secure his first career top-five at the track famously known as “Too Tough To Tame.”

“I’m proud of the effort that we had,” Blaney said after the race. “I’m obviously disappointed in the result. I thought we could have won the race and had a good shot at winning the race. We did the last run perfectly.

“I thought our pit call was fantastic and our car was fast enough to stay. It had a lot of speed in it late, but a late yellow and then lost the lead off pit road. We didn’t even get to start on the front row and you’re not gonna go from fourth to first in a green-white-checkered here, so it just wasn’t meant to be, but proud of the effort.”

Pit road turned out to be Blaney’s most significant weakness on Sunday. At key moments, the No. 12 Team Penske crew delivered slower-than-usual stops — including the final, all-important “money stop,” where Blaney lost three crucial positions.

Still, Blaney wasn’t placing all the blame on his pit crew. He acknowledged there’s work to be done but made it clear the loss wasn’t on their shoulders alone.

“We’ve just got some things to work on,” sounded Blaney. “Hey, I make mistakes. I screw up a lot. Those guys don’t have great stops every now and then, it’s just part of this sport, but they’ll go to work and figure it out where they need to improve, just like we do with our race car.

“Where do we have to improve on that, so those guys do the same thing and try to come back even better.”

There was no doubt in Blaney’s mind — had the final caution not flown, he believed he was on his way to his first Darlington victory and the 14th win of his NASCAR Cup Series career.

“If the caution didn’t come out, I thought we had it won easily,” added Blaney. “We were so much faster on newer tires. It was a great strategy call running long.

“Those guys short pitted and they were struggling real bad, and I thought if we could have just got off of two with the lead and the caution didn’t come out, I thought I was gonna kind of ride off into the sunset.

“That’s just not how it worked, unfortunately. We lost the lead on pit road, lost a front-row starting spot, and never had a shot.”

The eighth race of the season marked Blaney’s second top-five finish of the year, moving him up three spots in the championship standings to seventh — 79 points behind leader William Byron.

Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].