Blaney Back in Victory Lane

Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPA.com

Ryan Blaney picked up his second win of the year and his second win at Pocono on Sunday afternoon taking the checkered flag in the Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPA.com. Blaney, who was easily a top-5 car all day played the strategy right to take the lead late in the race. With the help of a few cautions, excellent restarts, and the strategy call by crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, Blaney was able to keep his Ford Darkhorse Mustang in the wind and held off Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman to cross the finish line first. The 12 team seems to be catching their stride at the right time with two wins recently as we rapidly approach the playoffs; again establishing themselves as serious championship contenders in 2024.

Pocono delivered a good race by Pocono standards. It wasn't the most entertaining, barn-burner of a race, although the cautions and late race restarts did help amp up some excitement. But it played out in a way many Pocono races have: with strategy and teams jockeying for track position via pit road and aggressive restarts. As such, there didn't seem to be a ton of on track passing after the first few laps of a restart. Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin appeared to be the only ones that could move up beyond three-or-four laps post restart, but even then they were too far behind to make much ground on cars in front of them. Hamlin, however, appeared to have the best car and on his way to an eighth win at the Tricky Triangle until a few cautions in stage three gave Blaney and the 12 team a leg up on strategy and track position. Yet, the strategy up to that point was compelling and kept me locked in on the race. Maybe not as intently due to the track position dominance and it being hard to pass, but it is fascinating to see what strategies will work for teams to fight for the win of the race or even fight for a win in their own book.

Of course, the strategy was tossed aside after the cautions of stage three. Gilliland broke (RIP my top-10 bet on him), Gibbs grenaded his engine, the brush up with JHN, ZSmith, and McDowell, and then there was the Lajoie v. Kyle Busch mayhem that took out multiple cars. These cautions definitely spiced up the ending even though they had erased the strategies for many teams. The intensity picked up each restart and as a race fan it is fascinating to watch the cars go (or try to go) three, four, five and even more wide into the narrow turn one. Hamlin did eventually run down and pass Bowman, but too little to late to do anything with the 12 car. But again, passing was at premium four-plus laps into a run and that allowed Blaney, who was superb on his restarts, to scoot away to the win.

My last note on the race is about the Lajoie v Busch kerfuffle. They both did what they had to do on the restart until the end. I have no problem with the block(s) Kyle Busch threw; I have no problem with Lajoie sending it with the move. I do not even care that Lajoie spun Busch. My only complaint is that others got caught up in their pissing match. What Corey and Kyle both did is what we crave, what we need, in NASCAR. Two guys going for the same spot to finish as high as they can. The collateral damage sucks, and I feel like Corey genuinely is mad at himself for that, but he's doing what he needs to do to get the best finish. So is Kyle. It's just racing.

Now we look ahead to the return to the oval of Indianapolis Motor Speedway! All three series are back in action this weekend - Trucks and Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) and the Xfinity Series and Cup Series are on the big track - and while I liked the road course there, the oval is where we need, and deserve, to be. The Trucks kick off the weekend at IRP on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. EST on FS1 with the TSport 200. The Xfinity picks up the racing on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. EST on USA with the Pennzoil 250. And the Cup Series finishes the weekend on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. EST with the Brickyard 400.

Indy Picks:

Cup = Byron

Xfinity = Allgaier

Truck (IRP) = Grant Enfinger

Header Photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images