Blaney's charge through Clash field comes up one place short

Today at 11:59 PM

Ryan Blaney had perhaps the second-most impressive drive in Sunday night's Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium by finishing second after starting last on the field.

Blaney got to the leader and eventual race winner Chase Elliott in the final stint of the exhibition race after it went green for the final time on lap 120 but didn't have enough to challenge or move Elliott. And the harder Blaney tried, the more he wore out the tires on his Team Penske machine and eventually burned off the right-rear tire.

"I got to 10th before the break and got to the top five relatively quick — a couple of restarts went my way — and by the time I got to second, I saved a pretty good bit even to get to second because I knew it might go the whole way," Blaney said. "Then it was just kind of like a game between (Elliott) and myself, like who can save more right-rear tire. I just didn't quite have enough to lean on there at the end.

"I started pushing with 25 to go, and I just didn't have enough. I was like, 'Uh oh.' I needed some help by lappers and I just never really could get there. I didn't have enough to lean on, but it was fun coming from the back. Just not quite having enough, but it's always fun when you can move forward like that."

Blaney and the No. 12 team started last, 23rd, after taking the provisional to make the field. He did not lock in a spot through his Saturday night heat race. Sunday afternoon, when the garage opened, the team discovered a hole in the water cooler and opted to change the water cooler and radiator, which put them at the rear for the Last Chance Qualifying race.

But having the provisional in their pocket, Blaney's group opted to run 23 laps of the Last Chance Qualifying race (75 laps) to ensure everything was in order and then parked the car. The provisional went to the driver highest in the 2024 championship standings who had not locked into the Clash through their heat race or the Last Chance Qualifying Race. Blaney finished second in the championship and teammate Joey Logano, the champion, locked up his Clash spot in his heat race.

In the first 100 laps before the halfway break, Blaney went from 23rd to 10th. It was on merit as the race’s first half had only two caution flags.

The charge continued after the break. Blaney was second with 50 laps to go and gained on leader Elliott before ultimately falling short.

"I think he just had better drive off than me that whole last run," Blaney said. "I turned better and he had better drive off, so it was kind of a trade-off, I feel like. Honestly, I felt like our cars were evenly matched. My car was better in one area and his car was better in another, but I felt like if you just swapped our two cars, I don't think we would have passed each other. If I was in front of him or if he was in front of me, I think we were pretty evenly matched, but when I started to go, I just didn't have enough right rear.

"I was not going to make that pass and couldn't just bulldog into him and get chased out of here with pitchforks, so when it was time to go, I just didn't quite have enough. I could turn really good, but I paid the penalty on exit to where he could just keep the power down a little bit longer and the right rears seemed to wear out more than right fronts, so it just helped him out a little bit more at the end."

Elliott wasn't surprised to see his friend and rival in the rearview mirror. Despite the track being a quarter-mile and Blaney having to come from the rear, Elliott praised Blaney's racecraft and how Bowman Gray had enough tire fall off to help as well.

"When I saw him, I was, like, 'Man, didn’t he start last?'" Elliott said. "Then I thought about it a little more (and) I thought, that’s really not all that surprising at all as good as he was at Martinsville in the fall. This isn’t super different from that. It is different, don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of similarities. I was not super surprised to see him up there by the end."