If you have ever been involved in auto racing, either as a competitor or a fan, you’ve heard this old adage: “I’d rather be lucky than good.” Ryan Blaney has been good for most of the 2022 NASCAR season. But after 25 weeks of racing, Blaney had not secured a spot in the Cup Series playoffs. It took would take one final week, a wild race at Daytona International Speedway and a healthy dose of luck to clinch Blaney’s spot in the Cup Series postseason.
Perhaps Blaney has been generally unlucky for the last six months. His only victory of 2022 remains a controversial win in the All-Star Race back in May. Through all the points-paying races, Blaney and the No. 12 team just couldn’t find a way to be first across the finish line. That put Blaney in a vulnerable position leaving heading to Daytona as the only driver above the playoff cut line without a victory. A new winner at Daytona would have barred Blaney from the playoffs, despite sitting third in overall points.
Yet fortune began to fall Blaney’s way as early as Thursday (August 25) when Kurt Busch and 23XI Racing asked NASCAR to pull Busch’s playoff waiver. Still battling symptoms from a concussion last month, Busch knew he would not be in a position to compete for the title and elected not to take up a spot in the playoffs, despite having technically qualified for them. Seeing Busch miss the playoffs in such a way is an unfortunate situation, but he deserves the respect and support of everyone in the industry for making a difficult, but classy, decision. Busch’s playoff withdrawal also took considerable pressure off of Blaney and Martin Truex Jr., the last two drivers who could have reached the playoffs on points.
But Blaney was not out of the woods. A long, rainy Saturday night in Daytona gave way to clearer skies and a green flag late on Sunday (August 28) morning. As the first stage wound down, Blaney raced his way into the top 10. But disaster struck on lap 31 when the No. 12 was collected in a multi-car accident on the backstretch. Blaney’s crew worked hard to keep him in the race and meet minimum speed, but the car could not maintain sufficient pace to be competitive.
As the race continued on, Truex racked up stage points, slashing away at the 25-point deficient to Blaney with which he began the race. Truex himself got tangled up in a lap 102 crash which appeared to tip the scales back in Blaney’s favor. But the race really turned on its head on lap 138 when a cloudburst…
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