This weekend the Cup Series returned to Hampton Georgia to race at the Echopark Speedway. Ryan Blaney led the field to green from the outside of the front row with his teammate Joey Logano to his inside. Brad Keselowski brushed the wall early and ended up falling a lap down before the end of the first stage. Blaney led every lap of the first stage but it wouldn’t be without challenges from Kyle Larson, Carson Hocevar, and a hard charging Tyler Reddick who started 31st on the day.
Stage 1 Results:
- Ryan Blaney
- Tyler Reddick
- Kyle Larson
- Joey Logano
- Austin Cindric
- Carson Hocevar
- Austin Dillon
- Chase Briscoe
- Chase Elliott
- Bubba Wallace
Reddick was able to win the race off pit road during the stage break pit stops while Blaney came off pit road in third. Reddick led the field to green to start the second stage with Larson at his inside. These three drivers as well as Carson Hocevar spend the next twenty laps fighting for the lead before Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell shuffled out Larson, Hocevar, and Reddick. Things strung out for about ten laps before a caution for lightning on lap 108 led to a three hour red flag.
After the track was dried we finally resumed racing on lap 124. The intensity instantly ratcheted back up as the leaders diced it up battling for control of the race. Blaney prevailed to sweep the stages as his night continued to be without blemish through two stages. Wallace got loose into turns three and four and was incidentally spun by Ty Gibbs although the damage he got was minimal at best.
Stage Two Results:
- Ryan Blaney
- Tyler Reddick
- Joey Logano
- Austin Cindric
- Daniel Suarez
- Ty Gibbs
- Christopher Bell
- Erik Jones
- Denny Hamlin
- Shane Van Gisbergen
Ty Gibbs won the race off pit road during the stage break pit stops as Blaney and some of the other leaders had to wait on fuel. He led the field to green to start the final stage with Austin Cindric to his inside. Gibbs was able to clear for the lead after a dive from his teammate Bell lowed up Cindric. the leaders continued to battle until lap 194 when A.J. Almendinger spun while running 28th after contact with Michael Mcdowell. Bell won the race off pit road and led the field back to green with Larson on his inside. Blaney pushed Larson clear before taking back control of the race himself.
Chase Elliott battled with Blaney and managed to lead a few laps as well the likes of Wallace and Larson. Caution flew again on lap 232 for Almendinger cutting a tire and hitting the wall in turns three and four. The front runners stayed out while those about eighth on back all pitted for fuel and fresh Goodyears. Wallace led the field back to green and Blaney managed to get back in front of him before caution flew again on lap 242 for Larson spinning into the infield after a stack up exiting turn four.
Blaney led the next restart but we only made it another ten laps before Larson turned himself off of Denny Hamlin’s nose on the backstretch collecting Chase Briscoe, Riley Herbst, Austin Hill, and Alex Bowman. This set up a overtime finish in which both Wallace and Bell assisted Blaney and helped him hold off Hocevar and win the race, his second victory of the year. It wouldn’t be a NASCAR race without controversy as NASCAR needlessly penalized the Wallace car for “going below the yellow line to gain an advantage” despite clear evidence to the contrary. Alas NASCAR is gonna NASCAR and this race was mercifully completed at nearly two AM local time.
Final Results:
- Ryan Blaney
- Christopher Bell
- Carson Hocevar
- Ty Gibbs
- Erik Jones
- Shane Van Gisbergen
- Austin Dillon
- Tyler Reddick
- Joey Logano
- Chris Buescher
Photo Credit: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
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