AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Ryan Blaney's bid to win a second NASCAR Cup Series championship came to an end with a bump by William Byron at Martinsville last weekend.
The dejection didn't deter the Team Penske driver once he arrived at Phoenix Raceway. If anything, it made him want to win even more.
Determined to finish his season with a win and put last week's disappointment behind him, Blaney passed Brad Keselowski just before the finish line to win the NASCAR
Series Cup season finale by 0.097 seconds on Sunday.
Kyle Larson won the Cup Series championship, but Blaney earned a little bit of redemption by winning the race at a track where he had come so close in the past.
“I don’t know if it’s like a huge relief off our shoulders,” Blaney said. "I’m just proud that we were in it today and this whole weekend and brought our best stuff. Even though we weren’t a part of the championship, we’re determined to try to end the year for Ford and Team Penske with a win."
Blaney won three times during the 2025 season, but went into Martinsville needing a win to join the Championship 4 in Phoenix. The 32-year-old led 177 laps after starting 31st and was in front with 44 laps left.
Blaney's return trip to the Championship 4 ended a lap later, when Byron moved him up the track with a bump from the rear to set up a pass on the low side. Byron led the rest of the way, fending off Blaney on a late restart to earn the Championship 4 spot instead of him.
“We were in the spot that we were in,” Blaney said. “Our goal this weekend was to try to win the race, have great momentum going into the wintertime. Understood that we weren’t going for a championship, but we were going to make the best out of it.”
Blaney won a championship at Phoenix in 2023 by finishing second to Ross Chastain and was third last year in his second Championship 4, finishing behind champion Joey Logano and Christopher Bell.
Blaney had finished twice at Phoenix Raceway each of the last three years and started this year's season finale fifth. He led 20 laps, but couldn't seem to stay in front once he got there.
With Denny Hamlin in the lead, a late caution sent the race into overtime and a good chunk of the field into the pits. Blaney's crew chief Jonathan Hassler made the decision to go with two tires on the final pit stop, putting the No. 12 car behind three cars who stayed out on old tires.
Blaney figured cars in front of him would struggle, and he was right. Making sure he didn't interfere with Larson's championship bid, he quickly moved to the front and pulled up next to Keselowski along the backstretch, passing him just before the checkered flag.
“Nobody gave up,” Hassler said. “Ryan did a good job handling that situation.”
The win was Blaney’s career-high fourth of the season to go with victories at Nashville, Daytona and New Hampshire. It was also his seventh career in a playoff race.
“This is what we needed to do today if we didn’t make it — obviously there’s what could have been,” Team Penske president of NASCAR Michael Nelson said. “This is our goal. Last week’s in the rearview mirror. We had to come here and win. That was the goal with our teams. Man, it was really great to get that done today.”
Maybe it wasn't for a championship. Blaney and his team are going to enjoy it just the same.
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