“That was a stressful day. A long weekend, honestly,” Ryan Blaney enters the 2022 cup playoff after dramatic finish at Daytona  

“That was a stressful day. A long weekend, honestly,” Ryan Blaney enters the 2022 cup playoff after dramatic finish at Daytona  

Ryan Blaney

The regular-season finale of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series at Daytona International Speedway was just another Cup race day at the storied facility as the severe rain, accidents, crashes, and wrecks all along the route gave a new dimension to it. Due to heavy rain, the race was originally moved from Saturday night to Sunday morning, and then it was postponed again for the final stretch.

RCR driver Austin Dillon squeezed his way to the victory lane and to the playoff in an emphatic fashion, with his teammate Tyler Reddick having a big part to play in it. But other than the impressive or disappointing race result, depending on whom you ask, another highlight of the race was the playoff entry of Ryan Blaney over Martin Truex Jr.

The situation was a complex and awkward one for Truex Jr. and Blaney as both were winless this season but ranked top 10 in the championship table a testament to their consistency. But the consistency didn’t cut it for the duo a 16th different win other than the two meant one of them missed out on the playoff, which happened in Daytona.

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Ryan Blaney produce an incredible comeback to secure a playoff entry

Ryan Blaney
Ryan Blaney

Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr., along with racing the whole field, racing each other for the playoff spot. Though both had a good start to the race with Blaney being in the front pack, all went south for the Team Penske Racer after he slammed Erick Jones to Denny Hamlin on lap 31, producing the first caution of the day and ending up with a beat up car.

Blaney was playing catch up with Truex, who was riding along the front Toyota pack after the crash and was getting un-lapped multiple times.  But things agin went good for the All-Star race winner after he found himself in the right setup in the final restart of the race after the rain delay and was able to outrace the No:19 driver who was missing out on the draft.

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Find out what Ryan Blaney had to say about his playoff entry

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Ryan Blaney

“That was a stressful day. A long weekend, honestly, of no qualifying, not getting in the car, [didn’t] race last night, wait around a day, get wrecked, and then you have a three-hour rain delay. Just definitely mentally drained, so it’ll be nice to relax a little bit,” Ryan Blaney said.

“The right front tie rod was broke; toe link was broke; the hood’s flying off of it. We spent a lot of money on bear bonds today. We went through our bear bond reserves. Yeah, suspension, body, you name it, it was pretty rough, but luckily, it was good enough,” Ryan Blaney added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPIn2F0GkMo

“Shook all those guys’ hands and told them good job and way to stick with it. They did a hell of a job fixing that thing. It was destroyed. I got done wrecking, and the wheel was 180 degrees turned around and not driving. The right front was stopped,” says Ryan Blaney.

“They did a great job fixing it and making it to where it was halfway decent enough to keep running and make minimum speed. So I thanked all those guys for sticking with it. They were as big a part of this as I was at keeping their head in the game,” added Ryan Blaney.

Do you think Ryan Blaney deserves the playoff entry?

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