Ryan Blaney was less than half a second from clinching his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championship in Phoenix.
His own Team Penske teammate Joey Logano denied him the honour with a straight shootout for victory, and the overall silverware in the desert.
An intense fight for the title had been brewing race long before a late caution scuppered the hopes of the inform William Byron.
Stopping at the worst time opened the door for a Penske showdown, which saw two of their cars separated by just 0.330 seconds at the finish.
Ryan Blaney lost the NASCAR title in Phoenix restart
Of the cars that stopped late on in the race, Logano had the advantage when it came to track position – which proved to be crucial.
He was able to stay ahead of both Byron and Kyle Larson, while Blaney had to fight to get around both – costing him time.
It’s something that former NASCAR star Kevin Harvick believes cost him a chance to win, speaking on the Happy Hour podcast.
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“I think that the biggest thing for Blaney is that he could’ve had a better restart at the end, that’s really where Joey beat him,” he said.
“I know that the #24 [William Byron] had only one lap on his tyres, but stickers to one lap scuffs when you fire off on the restart. They just drove around him.
“The biggest trouble that Blaney had was getting through the #5 car and the #24 car. They held him up for a tremendous amount of time and he lost so much ground to Logano that he was never able to make it up.”
What Blaney could have done differently
The late caution forced the hand of three of the championship protagonists, including Tyler Reddick – but he was a bit of a non-factor all day with slow pace.
Byron had a slight tye disadvantage and so that left Logano and Blaney to battle it out – but not everyone was willing to move over for them.
Larson in particular, probably should’ve been in the Championship 4 after winning the most races, leading the most laps and dominating most of the season.
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He was in no mood to step aside for Blaney, and although more aggression may have helped him past, there’s no guarantee that it wouldn’t have resulted in a crash or poorer relations between the two at the very least.
It’s a shame that there weren’t just a few more laps, as that would’ve been enough to see both Logano and Blaney go side-by-side, but there’s always the 2025 season…