What a race! What a finish!
After the NASCAR Cup Series drivers threaded the needle all day long and avoided the dreaded big one in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the race win came down to a last lap pass and a photo finish between two of the brightest young stars in the sport today — Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney.
With one lap to go in the green-white-checkered finish, Ryan Blaney had the lead and was on the inside lane with help from fellow Ford driver Michael McDowell.
Elliott was lined up alongside with fellow Chevrolet driver Erik Jones behind him.
Here is video of the exciting finish:
ELLIOTT WINS IN A THRILLING TALLADEGA FINISH!
The No. 9 is able to get the push to the front and keep his good friend @Blaney behind to punch his ticket to the Round of 8!#NASCAR #NASCARPlayoffs #YellaWood500 pic.twitter.com/ETuPHk44Xw
— NASCAR on TSN (@NASCARonTSN) October 2, 2022
Initially, it looked like Blaney was going to have the push he needed from McDowell to get his first victory of the 2022 season, but as the two lines of drivers reached turn 4 on the final lap, McDowell lost connection with Blaney, which stalled Blaney’s run out.
As this happened, Elliott got a massive push from Jones, and he used that to carve past Blaney to win the race by 0.046 sec.
Here is Elliott’s post-race interview, and more views of the finish:
"Hopefully we can make it out to Phoenix and give 'em a run."@chaseelliott is 1 round away from having a shot at his 2nd championship after being the 1st Playoff driver to win in the #NASCARPlayoffs #NASCAR #YellaWood500 pic.twitter.com/8P4gzD99IE
— NASCAR on TSN (@NASCARonTSN) October 2, 2022
For Ryan Blaney, you could hear the emotion in his voice after he missed out on his first win of the season, but he said he did everything he could do to win the race.
"I'm probably gonna replay in my head 5 different things I could've done different."@Blaney came get a few feet shy of his 1st win of 2022, but he does enter the Roval as the highest seed on points after a strong day at @TALLADEGA #NASCAR #NASCARPlayoffs #YellaWood500 pic.twitter.com/iINettIpBK
— NASCAR on TSN (@NASCARonTSN) October 2, 2022
