Ryan Blaney Was “Doing God’s Work” at Daytona by Breaking Underdogs’ Heart

Three times Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin explained how Ryan Blaney’s Coke 400 win saved the sport from critics.

Ryan Blaney Was “Doing God’s Work” at Daytona by Breaking Underdogs’ Heart

Ryan Blaney (Via @Team_Penske/X)

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The NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway witnessed a masterful performance from Ryan Baleny, who won the race despite being P12 with two laps to go. He joined forces with Cole Custer, use the chaos upfront to his advantage, took the lead from Justin Haley, and went onto win in a four wide photo finish.

If Ryan Blaney hadn’t won the race, the whole playoff dynamic would have changed, with Alex Bowman not getting in on points. Five of the six driver upfront in the last lap were racers that needed a win to make it into the playoffs, and non-of them were among the top 20 racers of the seasons. If one of them would have won, the fans who hates the format would have gone crazy.

Addressing this factor in the latest episode of his podcast, Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin hilariously declared that Ryan Blaney was doing the Gods work with the win and keeping the whole playoff format credible. The whole narrative about how good the race was, wouldn’t have happened if not for a No:12 car win.

We’ve been talking about the playoffs — the whole playoffs and the format. Ryan Blaney was out here doing God’s work. I mean, everyone he was racing was like 30th in points. How different would the narrative have been if Cole [Custer] or Justin [Haley] had won versus Blaney? I mean, we’re talking about how great the racing was, and it was.

Denny Hamlin said via Actions Detrimental podcast.

Further talking about the point, the veteran racer admitted how he has been very critical of the new car for a long-time, via his podcast, owing to underwhelming race product. At the same time, they have given the sport the prop when it warranted as last week was one of them. But it was due to the fact that they were fortunate an underdogs didn’t win.

We’re critical most times on this podcast, but we also got to give it to do when the racing was good. At the end of that race, it was good racing. But it’s just — oh man, we were one more big underdog away from fans just going absolutely berserk.

Denny Hamlin added.

Denny Hamlin explained the secret behind Ryan Blaney’s win

In the same podcast, Denny Hamlin explained how the Ford veteran charged from outside the top-10 to win the race, despite the challenging next-gen car has in the traffic. He highlighted this has do with the patience shown by the 2023 Cup series champion, as the star driver picked his battles while making his way to the front, exploring the opening due to chaos.

Denny Hamlin and Chris Gabehart (Via IMAGO)
Denny Hamlin and Chris Gabehart (Via IMAGO)

He was masterful in being patient. What I saw was he was very patient and if you notice, he didn’t make a whole lot of moves. He allowed others to make moves and then he just held steady. He knows who his help is. His spotter’s doing a good job telling him who’s behind him. At the time I think it was the 99 that was pushing him.

Denny Hamlin said.

Ryan Balney understood the top lane would be the fastest of the day, and while the driver ahead of him moved to different lane to block other, he remains committed. Just like What Denny Hamlin used to do in the days where he dominated superspeedway racing, he used the impatience of his rivals to his advantage.

Also Read: Denny Hamlin Boldly Predicts Shane van Gisbergen’s Playoff Elimination in R-16