Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 NASCAR Ford Mustang Dark Horse, held off a hard-charging Denny Hamlin in the closing laps of the Cup Series race at Pocono on July 14th, 2024 – the track where he won his first race in the division back in 2017.
Blaney crossed the line 1.312 seconds ahead of Hamlin, who is the winningest driver in Pocono history. Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota TRD Camry cut a second off Blaney’s lead after the final restart, but just didn’t have enough laps to track Blaney down.
“Feel like we’ve gotten to a great pace and speed the last couple months,” Blaney said after the race. “Honestly thought we let a couple races slip away from us I thought we should have won. It’s just so cool to win here again. Won here seven years ago for my first Cup win, so awesome to be back.”
Meanwhile, Hamlin said, “Just not enough laps of green there at the end, but hats off to them, great run. He kept up great pace at there at the front and hard for me to even get up there close enough to try to reel him in.”
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 NASCAR Ford, was the next-best Blue Oval racer on Sunday. He finished fifth. In its post-race inspection report, NASCAR indicated that it will take the No. 22 Mustang back to its Research and Development Center for further teardown and study following the race. However, no explanation was given regarding why Logano’s race car was seized. Any resulting penalties will be announced mid-week.
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 6 Mustang, was the only other Ford driver to finish inside the top 10, crossing the line seventh.
| Finish | Start | Car Number | Driver | Team | Laps Run | Laps Led | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Wabash Ford | 160 | 44 | Ford Mustang |
| 2 | 4 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Mavis Tire Toyota | 160 | 31 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 3 | 6 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Best Friends Chevrolet | 160 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 4 | 2 | 24 | William Byron | Raptor High Heat Chevrolet | 160 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 5 | 10 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 160 | 3 | Ford Mustang |
| 6 | 7 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | MoneyLion Toyota | 160 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 7 | 14 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Nexlizet Ford | 160 | 20 | Ford Mustang |
| 8 | 3 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Interstate Batteries Toyota | 160 | 14 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 9 | 11 | 9 | Chase Elliott | NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet | 160 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 10 | 29 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Leidos Toyota | 160 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 11 | 18 | 17 | Chris Buescher | BuildSubmarines.com Ford | 160 | 19 | Ford Mustang |
| 12 | 13 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Rheem Toyota | 160 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 13 | 12 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 160 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 14 | 23 | 43 | Erik Jones | Family Dollar Toyota | 160 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 15 | 28 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | HighPoint.com Ford | 160 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 16 | 16 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Worldwide Express Chevrolet | 160 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 17 | 15 | 77 | Carson Hocevar # | Delaware Life Chevrolet | 160 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 18 | 20 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford | 160 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 19 | 30 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Parity in Paris Chevrolet | 160 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 20 | 5 | 4 | Josh Berry # | Overstock.com Ford | 160 | 8 | Ford Mustang |
| 21 | 26 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger(i) | Cirkul Chevrolet | 160 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 22 | 34 | 51 | Justin Haley | Walmart Health & Wellness Ford | 160 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 23 | 17 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Boot Barn Chevrolet | 159 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 24 | 21 | 34 | Michael McDowell | GUNK Ford | 157 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 25 | 27 | 31 | Daniel Hemric | Poppy Bank Chevrolet | 153 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 26 | 35 | 15 | Cody Ware | Jacob Construction Ford | 134 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 27 | 1 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Monster Energy Toyota | 132 | 21 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 28 | 32 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Dollar Tree Toyota | 126 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 29 | 9 | 71 | Zane Smith # | Focused Health Chevrolet | 126 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 30 | 36 | 41 | Ryan Preece | HaasTooling.com Ford | 121 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 31 | 22 | 21 | Harrison Burton | DEX Imaging Ford | 121 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 32 | 24 | 8 | Kyle Busch | zone/GetGo Chevrolet | 120 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 33 | 31 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Sugarlands Sippin' Cream Chevrolet | 120 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 34 | 33 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | C.H. REED Ford | 115 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 35 | 37 | 44 | JJ Yeley(i) | Ollie's Bargain Outlet Chevrolet | 112 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 36 | 19 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Busch Light Peach Chevrolet | 53 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 37 | 25 | 10 | Noah Gragson | Overstock.com Ford | 13 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
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Comments
Blaney was almost coasting on the last lap. He pulled away from the 2nd and 3rd place cars prior to that and built up an uncatchable lead. If you watched the race it was obvious that Blaney was taking no chances on that last lap.
it was too bad Nascar got in the way a said people were speeding down pit road so they could help their favorite driver Denny Hamlin and thankfully they failed to help him win