Ryan Blaney earned his second win of the season Sunday at Pocono.
Blaney had no issues on the final green-flag lap of the race after a caution on Lap 132 for Ty Gibbs’ blown engine. Blaney took the lead for good on Lap 117 of the 160-lap race and pulled away from Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman in the final phase.
The 2023 Cup Series champion earned his first win of the season in June at Iowa and Sunday’s victory is his second career win at Pocono. He earned his first career win in 2017 at the 2.5-mile track while driving for Wood Brothers Racing.
This victory was the 12th of Blaney’s career.
Blaney never led until lap 117 and his stint at the front was much like everyone else’s throughout the race. Clean air seemed paramount; drivers found it difficult to overtake to take the lead. The lead was exchanged on pit road and through various pit strategies versus on-track passing.
Hamlin passed Bowman for second with seven laps remaining, while William Byron was fourth and Joey Logano was fifth.
The strategies that had confused the field during the first two stages of the race disappeared in the final stage. A caution on Lap 114 for Todd Gilliland’s apparent brake failure brought everyone into the pits and Blaney inherited the lead after a speeding penalty to Kyle Larson and others. After that, there were three more cautions in the final stage before the final lap to the finish.
Blaney took the lead because his final pit stop before Gilliland’s caution came before the end of the second stage. Hamlin stayed out until the end of the stage to win the stage and the tiebreaker point that came with it.
Corey LaJoie passes Kyle Busch
One of three cautions in the final stage came when Corey LaJoie inexplicably hooked Kyle Busch on a restart entering Turn 1.
Busch blocked LaJoie and there was some contact between the two drivers as Busch dove in front of the No. 7 driver. And LaJoie veered right before the corner and threw Busch into the infield after the block occurred.
Have a look.
It’s a move that’s hard to defend as unintentional on LaJoie’s part. Hooking a driver in Turn 1 at Pocono on a restart or at full speed is a reckless move. What LaJoie did to Busch is one of the dumbest moves you’ll see this season, whether intentional or not.
The accident took Busch out of the race, finishing 32nd, while LaJoie was 19th.
Lajoie entered the race ranked 31st in the points standings. He’ll crack the top 30 thanks to the struggles of a couple of drivers ahead of him, but it’s no exaggeration to say he’s having a disappointing season. LaJoie trails rookie teammate Carson Hocevar in the standings and his 23.2 average finish is better than only three other full-time drivers.
Earlier this week, Spire Motorsports announced that Rodney Childers will take over as LaJoie’s crew chief in 2025. Childers is one of the most successful crew chiefs in the garage and currently leads Josh Berry’s No. 4 team after serving as Kevin Harvick’s crew chief for a decade at Stewart-Haas Racing.
Childers’ arrival will create a season of high expectations for LaJoie in 2025. And so far he hasn’t shown any signs that he’ll be able to live up to those lofty expectations. LaJoie has nine top-10 finishes in 257 career Cup Series races. All of them have come at superspeedways.
Race results
1. Ryan Blaney
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Alex Bowman
4. William Byron
5. Joey Logano
6. Tyler Reddick
7. Brad Keselowski
8. Martin Truex Jr.
9. Chase Elliott
10. Bubba Wallace
11. Chris Buescher
12. Christopher Bell
13. Kyle Larson
14. Erik Jones
15. Chasing Briscoe
16. Daniel Suarez
17. Carson Hocevar
18. Austin Cindrici
19. Corey La Joie
20. Josh Berry
21. AJ Allmendinger
22. Justin Haley
23. Austin Dillon
24. Michael McDowell
25. Daniel Henric
26. Cody Ware
27. Ty Gibbs
28. John Hunter Nemechek
29. Zane Smith
30. Ryan Preece
31. Harrison Burton
32. Kyle Busch
33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
34. Todd Gilliland
35. JJ Yeley
36. Ross Chastain
37. Noah Gragson