NASCAR: Ryan Blaney leads the last 44 laps to win at Pocono

Ryan Blaney cruised to his second win of the season on Sunday at Pocono.

Blaney wasn’t challenged over the final green-flag run of the race following a lap 132 caution for Ty Gibbs’ blown engine. Blaney took the lead for good on lap 117 of the 160-lap race and drove away from Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman over the final phase.

The 2023 Cup Series champion got his first win of the season in June at Iowa and Sunday’s victory is the second of his career at Pocono. He got the first win of his career in 2017 at the 2.5-mile track while driving for Wood Brothers Racing.

This win was the 12th of Blaney’s career.

Blaney never led until lap 117 and his turn at the front was much like it was for everyone else throughout the race. Clean air seemed paramount; it was hard for drivers to make passes for the lead. The lead was traded on pit road and through various pit strategies vs. on-track passing.

Hamlin passed Bowman for second with seven laps to go, while William Byron was fourth and Joey Logano was fifth.

The strategies that jumbled the field throughout the first two stages of the race disappeared in the final stage. The caution on lap 114 for Todd Gilliland’s apparent brake failure brought everyone to pit road and Blaney inherited the lead following a speeding penalty for Kyle Larson and others. After that, three more cautions happened in the final stage before the final run to the finish.

Blaney took over the lead because his most recent pit stop before Gilliland's caution came before the end of the second stage. Hamlin stayed out at the end of the stage for the stage win and the playoff point that came with it.

Corey LaJoie turns Kyle Busch

One of the three final-stage cautions came when Corey LaJoie inexplicably hooked Kyle Busch on a restart entering Turn 1.

Busch blocked LaJoie and there was some contact between the two drivers when Busch dove down in front of the driver of the No. 7. And LaJoie turned right before the corner and dumped Busch into the infield after the block happened.

Take a look.

It’s a move that’s hard to defend as unintentional on LaJoie’s part. Hooking a driver into Turn 1 at Pocono on a restart or at full speed is an unwise move. What LaJoie did to Busch is one of the dumber moves you’ll see this season, whether it was on purpose or not.

The wreck took Busch out of the race and he finished 32nd while LaJoie was 19th.

After the race, LaJoie said that Busch went spinning off his bumper after he blocked a second time. Watch the video above again for yourself. Does Busch move down or does LaJoie move up to cause the contact?

LaJoie entered the race 31st in the points standings. He’ll move into the top 30 thanks to trouble for a couple of drivers ahead of him, but it’s not a stretch to say he’s having an underwhelming season. LaJoie is behind his rookie teammate Carson Hocevar in the standings and his average finish of 23.2 is better than only three other full-time drivers.

Earlier this week, Spire Motorsports announced that Rodney Childers would take over as LaJoie’s crew chief in 2025. Childers is one of the most successful crew chiefs in the garage and currently leads Josh Berry’s No. 4 team after serving as Kevin Harvick’s crew chief for a decade at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Childers’ arrival will lead to a season of serious expectations for LaJoie in 2025. And he’s shown no sign so far that he’s capable of meeting high expectations. LaJoie has nine top-10 finishes in 257 career Cup Series races. All of them have come on superspeedways.

Race results

1. Ryan Blaney

2. Denny Hamlin

3. Alex Bowman

4. William Byron

5. Joey Logano

6. Tyler Reddick

7. Brad Keselowski

8. Martin Truex Jr.

9. Chase Elliott

10. Bubba Wallace

11. Chris Buescher

12. Christopher Bell

13. Kyle Larson

14. Erik Jones

15. Chase Briscoe

16. Daniel Suarez

17. Carson Hocevar

18. Austin Cindrci

19. Corey LaJoie

20. Josh Berry

21. AJ Allmendinger

22. Justin Haley

23. Austin Dillon

24. Michael McDowell

25. Daniel Henric

26. Cody Ware

27. Ty Gibbs

28. John Hunter Nemechek

29. Zane Smith

30. Ryan Preece

31. Harrison Burton

32. Kyle Busch

33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

34. Todd Gilliland

35. JJ Yeley

36. Ross Chastain

37. Noah Gragson