What in the world? The 2020 GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway will be remembered as an insane race, which took place on a pivotal week in NASCAR history. In the end, Ryan Blaney held on by the narrowest of margins in a photo finish over Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
As the furious pack was steaming toward the finish line, it looked like Erik Jones had the win. He had a run, but Blaney blocked high. Then Blaney blocked Jones low. Eventually, Jones went hard into the wall with John Hunter Nemechek.
From there it was a drag race to the finish line. The official victory margin was just 0.007 sec.
Here is the complete last lap of the race:
WHAT. A. FINISH. Retweet to congratulate Ryan @Blaney on his WIN at Talladega! pic.twitter.com/GfNSc7g7mB
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 22, 2020
This marks Blaney’s second-consecutive victory at the 2.66-mile superspeedway in Alabama.
Behind Blaney and Stenhouse was Aric Almirola in third.
Denny Hamlin was fourth and Jones, despite skidding on the wall across the line, was fifth.
Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-10.
Bubba Wallace, the lone African-American driver in the NASCAR Cup Series field, finished 14th after running in the lead group in the closing laps. Wallace led a lap and had it not been for running out of fuel as the last caution waved, he could have contended for the win.
Still, on a week where a noose was discovered in his garage stall, Wallace’s incredible run in the face of blatant racism was incredible.
“That deal yesterday — sorry I’m not wearing my mask, but I wanted to show whoever did it yesterday, you aren’t going to take away my smile,” Wallace stated emphatically.
Wallace was honored by his fellow drivers and the other members of the garage in the pre-race, as his No. 43 was pushed to the front of the grid on pit road.
Post-Race Stat Pack:
