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Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney won his first race of the season in the NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. The 28-year-old emerged victorious in a controversial finish to earn a cash prize of $1 million in the second exhibition event of the season.
On the final lap, just before the Team Penske driver had crossed the finish line, a caution flag came out for Rick Stenhouse Jr., who had made contact with the wall. Blaney was just seconds away from crossing the finish line before the yellow light flashed and the race went into overtime, since according to the rules, the race must end under a green flag.
Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney brought his window net down believing that he had already taken the checkered flag. It took him a while to get it back up before the restart.
After finally getting the net secured, the race restarted and the Hartford Township, Ohio native managed to hold off Denny Hamlin by 0.266 seconds to officially earn his career's first All-Star Race.
With his victory in Texas, the Team Penske driver became the 26th different driver to win the All-Star Race. Blaney started on the front row and showed complete dominance, leading 84 out of 125 laps.
Ryan Blaney talks about his unconventional finish at Texas Motor Speedway
Ryan Blaney was ecstatic after Sunday's victory. The win was not official in the Cup Series, however, he has been a consistent performer so far this season and stands second in the Cup Series standings with 423 points.
During the post-race interview, speaking about winning NASCAR’s prestigious All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway, he said:
“It was about to be real bad for us, I thought the race was over. Everyone thought the race was over. I already had my window net down. I do want to thank NASCAR for letting me kind of fix it and not make us come down pit road. But yeah, that was really tough. Then having to do it all over again after trying to get that window net back up there. I know it’s not a points-winning race. But it’s going to be a lot of fun. Party is going to be pretty big.”
The NASCAR Cup Series returns next weekend for Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The action will go live at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday, May 29, 2022.
