Tenth place doesn’t sound like much for Ryan Blaney, but it was enough give him a little more breathing room as the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs approach.
Blaney entered the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 14) second in the point standings, but he was the last driver in the playoffs, as there have been 15 different winners on the season. For now, only one driver who hasn’t won a race will be one of the 16 playoff drivers.
After Richmond, Blaney now leads Martin Truex Jr. by 26 points for that final spot, extending his lead by seven points. Truex actually finished three spots higher than the No. 12, but Blaney scored 10 more stage points. Truex finished the first stage in 10th and the second stage outside the top 10. While Blaney finished sixth and fifth in the two stages.
“It’s part of it, right? You have to understand we’re kind of racing him for the points a little bit,” Blaney said. “Not a little bit, but for the final spot if no one else wins. So you have to be aware of that and doing all you can.
“It was a good day for the stage points side of getting more than he did and kind of stretching it a little bit. But just got to keep doing the same thing every weekend, I mean that’s all you can control.”
The top 10 marked Blaney’s third consecutive at Richmond, a track that used to be one of his worst. Blaney’s crew chief Jonathan Hassler stuck to the plan he entered the race with and didn’t try any huge gambles despite Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell going with differing strategies from the rest of the leaders.
“Our strategy all weekend was to do a two-stopper [in the final stage],” Blaney said. “That was the game plan the whole time. But then it just depends on, do you short-pit it five laps or do you go a little bit longer by five laps. It seemed like the Nos. 11 and 20, they went long before they made their last stop and they had speed at the end of the race.
“A lot of that, too, is how your car is. If you’re holding on fairly decent then you run it a little bit long. No, that didn’t really affect our strategy at all. We had a plan and stuck to it.
Another scenario that could’ve thrown a wrench in Blaney’s postseason was the potential for a new winner on Sunday. Chris Buescher came on late in the race and made a serious charge at eventual winner Kevin Harvick. Had Buescher scored his first win in six years, Blaney would no longer have a spot in the playoffs and…
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