July 15, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Ryan Blaney earns his 12th career win at Pocono Raceway

LONG POND, Pa. — Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney returned to the site of his first career NASCAR Cup Series win and pulled away from the field in the closing laps of Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPA.com at a sold-out Pocono (Pa.) Raceway to deliver a strong reminder to the competition that he’s primed to contend for another season trophy.

Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford held off the track’s all-time winningest driver Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota by 1.312-seconds to give Blaney his second victory of the season – both coming in just the last month – and the 12th win of the 30-year old’s career.

“Hell yeah boys, let’s go,’ an elated Blaney screamed to his team as he crossed the historic Pocono finish line.

With the victory Blaney moves up to fifth place in the championship standings and thanks to his first win of the year at Iowa Speedway on June 16, he’s one of only five drivers with multiple victories on the season.

“Feel like we’ve gotten to a great pace and speed the last couple months, honestly thought we let a couple races slip away from us I thought we should have won,’’ Blaney said, adding, “It’s just so cool to win here again. Won here seven years ago for my first Cup win, so awesome to be back.’’

Although he ran among the top-10 for much of the race, Blaney ultimately took the lead on a restart with 44 laps remaining and never relinquished it despite two more restarts and a highly-motivated Hamlin lining up either alongside him or directly behind him on each of those green flags.

Last week’s race winner, Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman filled Blaney’s mirrors for much of the closing laps until getting passed by Hamlin with seven laps remaining. Bowman finished third with his Hendrick teammate William Byron and Blaney’s Team Penske teammate Joey Logano rounding out the top-five.

“Track position was just such a big thing and when that 12 [Blaney] jumped on that stage we won that put them in front of us and certainly were going to be hard to pass,’’ said Hamlin, a seven-time Pocono race winner who won Sunday’s second stage.

“Just not enough laps of green there at the end but hats off to them, great run. He kept up great pace at there at the front and hard for me to even get up there close enough to try to reel him in.’’

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Brad Keselowski, JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. (the opening stage winner), Hendrick’s Chase Elliott and 23XI’s Bubba Wallace rounded out the Top-10. Both Elliott’s and Wallace’s finishes, in particular, were impactful on the championship standings.

The 2020 series champion Elliott took over the championship lead from his teammate, 2021 series champ Kyle Larson and takes a slim three-point advantage atop the regular season standings with only five races remaining before the Playoffs. The regular season champion receives a valuable 15 extra Playoff points to carry with him through the 10-race Playoff run.

Wallace’s top-10 was also important in his quest to become championship eligible for the second consecutive year. He is now ranked 17th, only 27 points behind 16th place Ross Chastain with the top-16 drivers following the Sept. 1 race at Darlington, S.C. eligible for the championship.

Chastain, one of four drivers inside the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field without a win but based on points, finished 36th on Sunday. His No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet slammed the Turn 1 wall on Lap 53 and the team had to retire the car.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch was involved in a multi-car accident with 39 laps remaining and finished 32nd Sunday. He’s now finished 27th or worse in four of the last five races and is ranked 19th in the standings, 102 points behind 16th place Chastain. The two-time series champion is not only trying to make the Playoffs but extend a career winning streak to 19 seasons.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Race Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell won last year’s Indy race, but it was on the road course. The last driver to win a race on the 2.5-mile speedway is recently retired driver Kevin Harvick in 2020.



NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 21
Race Results for the The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPA.com - Sunday, July 14, 2024
Pocono Raceway - Long Pond, PA - 2.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 160 Laps - 400. Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 7/14/2024 @ 06:03 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 8 12 Ryan Blaney Wabash Ford 160   40 Running 1 44 5
2 4 11 Denny Hamlin Mavis Tire Toyota 160 2 1 54 Running 1 31 1
3 6 48 Alex Bowman Ally Best Friends Chevrolet 160 6 7 43 Running  
4 2 24 William Byron Raptor High Heat Chevrolet 160 4 4 47 Running  
5 10 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 160 7 9 38 Running 1 3
6 7 45 Tyler Reddick MoneyLion Toyota 160 3 10 40 Running  
7 14 6 Brad Keselowski Nexlizet Ford 160 8 3 41 Running 1 20
8 3 19 Martin Truex Jr. Interstate Batteries Toyota 160 1  39 Running 1 14 1
9 11 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 160 5 2 43 Running  
10 29 23 Bubba Wallace Leidos Toyota 160   27 Running  
11 18 17 Chris Buescher BuildSubmarines.com Ford 160   26 Running 1 19
12 13 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 160 9 8 30 Running  
13 12 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 160  6 29 Running  
14 23 43 Erik Jones Family Dollar Toyota 160 10 5 30 Running  
15 28 14 Chase Briscoe HighPoint.com Ford 160   22 Running  
16 16 99 Daniel Suarez Worldwide Express Chevrolet 160   21 Running  
17 15 77 Carson Hocevar # Delaware Life Chevrolet 160   20 Running  
18 20 2 Austin Cindric Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford 160   19 Running  
19 30 7 Corey LaJoie Parity in Paris Chevrolet 160   18 Running  
20 5 4 Josh Berry # Overstock.com Ford 160   17 Running 1 8
21 26 16 AJ Allmendinger(i) Cirkul Chevrolet 160   0 Running  
22 34 51 Justin Haley Walmart Health & Wellness Ford 160   15 Running  
23 17 3 Austin Dillon Boot Barn Chevrolet 159   14 Running  
24 21 34 Michael McDowell GUNK Ford 157   13 Running  
25 27 31 Daniel Hemric Poppy Bank Chevrolet 153   12   
26 35 15 Cody Ware Jacob Construction Ford 134   11   
27 1 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 132   10 Engine 2 21
28 32 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 126   9 Accident  
29 9 71 Zane Smith # Focused Health Chevrolet 126   8 Accident  
30 36 41 Ryan Preece HaasTooling.com Ford 121   7 Accident  
31 22 21 Harrison Burton DEX Imaging Ford 121   6 Accident  
32 24 8 Kyle Busch zone/GetGo Chevrolet 120   5 Accident  
33 31 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Sugarlands Sippin' Cream Chevrolet 120   4 Accident  
34 33 38 Todd Gilliland C.H. REED Ford 115   3 Accident  
35 37 44 JJ Yeley(i) Ollie's Bargain Outlet Chevrolet 112   0 Fuel Pump  
36 19 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Peach Chevrolet 53   1 Accident  
37 25 10 Noah Gragson Overstock.com Ford 13   1 Accident  

Time of Race:  Average Speed: 0 MPH Margin of Victory: 0 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 19, 11, 45, 24, 9, 48, 22, 6, 20, 43
Stage 2 Top 10: 11, 9, 6, 24, 43, 5, 48, 20, 22, 45

Caution Flags: 8 for 34 laps; Laps: 15-17 (No. 10 Incident Turn 1 [None]); 32-35 (Stage 1 Conclusion [None]); 54-58 (No. 1 Indcident Turn 3 [None]); 97-100 (Stage 2 Conclusion [71]); 116-120 (No. 38 Incident Turn 1 [4]); 122-126 (Nos. 2, 7, 8,16, 21, 41, 47 Incident Turn 1 [31]); 128-131 (Nos. 34, 42, 71 Incident Backstretch [None]); 134-137 (Fluid on Backstretch [None]).

Lead Changes: 8 among 8 drivers; T. Gibbs 1-17; M. Truex Jr. 18-31; J. Logano 32-34; B. Keselowski 35-54; T. Gibbs 55-58; J. Berry # 59-66; D. Hamlin 67-97; C.
Buescher 98-116; R. Blaney 117-160.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: July 21, 2024 - Indianapolis Motor Speedway

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