No. 12 NASCAR Ford Loses Three-Wide Photo Finish At Atlanta: Video

Mere inches decided the win at Atlanta Motor Speedway on February 25^th, 2024, and unfortunately, Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 NASCAR Ford Mustang was on the wrong side of the stripe in a three-wide photo finish.

Blaney looked like he had the Mustang Dark Horse race car to beat after snagging the lead on the final restart, holding onto the top spot for four laps. However, the No. 99 Chevy Camaro ZL1 of Daniel Suárez and the No. 8 Camaro of Kyle Busch shot out from the pack on the last lap, each looking to put Blaney in the rearview. Blaney took to the bottom lane, hoping to hold his lead as they charged to the finish line, but was equally matched by Busch and Suárez as they went neck-and-neck to the checkered flag.

Timing and scoring results showed Blaney’s No. 12 NASCAR Ford nearly dead even with Suárez’s No. 99 Camaro, but the latter was declared the winner by a razor-thin margin of 0.003 seconds.

“I thought I laid back enough in [Turns] 1 and 2 to not let both lanes get that big of a run,” Blaney said after the race. “I did that like the three laps before the end, and I was able to manage it kind of fairly well, and they just got both lanes shoving super hard. I just chose the bottom, and it was the safest place to be.”

He added, “What a cool finish. Appreciate the fans for sticking around. That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that, race clean, three-wide finish to the end. Happy for Daniel. That was cool to see. Fun racing with Kyle. I can’t complain; I’ve won them by very, very little, too, so I can’t complain too much when I lose them by that much.”

# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver

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