Ryan Blaney has won the rain-delayed Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to snap a 59-race winless streak.
“You start to get to feel like you can’t win anymore when you don’t win in a while,” the Penske Ford Mustang driver said after celebrating with fans.
“It kind of gets hard. So just super thankful to the 12 guys for believing in me. Thank you guys for sticking around. Really appreciate it.”
The third-generation driver did not have an easy path to Victory Lane. He had to contend with William Byron on seven different restarts due to the number of cautions, and he had to nail every single restart.
This battle included the final restart with 20 laps to go, one where he almost lost control of the #12 Team Penske Ford Mustang. He was able to get the car gathered back up, and he used it to build up a lead of more than one second.
“He definitely threw a big block into [Turn] 3, I had some big momentum into 3,” said Truex. “I just kinda guessed wrong. I guessed he’d go low, I was gonna go high, and he just turned right and shot up the track right in front of me and pretty much parked it.
“Good to see him win though. It’s been a while for him, and he was really strong all night.”
Byron crossed the finish line second, Truex was third after missing out on his third Coca-Cola 600 win, Bubba Wallace was fourth, and Tyler Reddick was fifth.
The Crown Jewel race began one day later than expected after persistent rainfall at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It then had another 31-minute delay after the rain fell once again on Lap 157.
Once the skies cleared, the drivers were able to complete the rest of the 600-mile (965.61-kilometre) race. Though the aggressive moves led to numerous restarts.
Following a trend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Coca-Cola 600 had more than a dozen cautions. The all-time record was 22 in 2005 while the second-largest number was 18 in 2022. The 2023 race had 16 cautions, which tied the 2019 race for the third-most all-time.
With the win at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Blaney was able to complete a special weekend for team owner Roger Penske. He completed the sweep that began with Josef Newgarden capturing the Indy 500 on Sunday, May 28.
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