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The NASCAR Cup Series' visit to the Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 23 saw Team Penske's Ryan Blaney once again come extremely close to taking the checkered flag in P1.
The GEICO 500 at the Lincoln, Alabama track saw the #12 Ford Mustang driver follow 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace Jr. in P2 when a move between the duo brought out the final caution flag of the event.
The final two laps of the 188-lap-long event saw Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace Jr. work together in the outside lane to clear Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch. After the duo moved ahead of the #8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driver, Blaney was seen closing in on Wallace Jr. in a bid to take over the lead in the race.
Leading on the final lap of the race, the #23 Toyota Camry TRD driver tried to block Blaney's progress, which saw the former spin and crash out of the race. While Blaney managed to finish in P2 behind Kyle Busch, who won, Bubba Wallace Jr.'s efforts came undone.
The Team Penske driver shared his point of view on the incident in the post-race interview and said:
"It's hard to block in these cars. I feel like he triple-moved on me. You can't really do that. He blocked the middle, he blocked the bottom, he blocked the top and I'm there so shame to get him turned but I don't know what else I can do besides slam on the brakes, and you can't do that. I’m not blaming anybody. It’s just hard racing."
Ryan Blaney considers good friend Bubba Wallace Jr. just like any other competitor on the track
Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace Jr. have been good friends off the racetrack while being fierce competitors in it for quite some time. However, the duo seemed to disagree with each other's racing techniques during the GEICO 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway.
After Bubba Wallace Jr. spun out of the lead after making contact with Blaney, the Team Penske driver elaborated on how everyone on the track is a competitor to him. He said:
“You never want to have someone turned off the front end of your nose, no matter what the situation is. Obviously, you don’t want to do that to a friend. Everyone is a competitor out there. It’s not like I’m going to race Bubba any less hard than anyone else. We’re trying to beat him just as much as everybody else.”
Watch Ryan Blaney race next weekend at the Dover Motor Speedway as he looks for that elusive first win of the 2023 Cup Series season.
