From that point, it was a battle of fresh rubber versus worn rubber, as Blaney slowly crept in on Busch’s back bumper. With 12 to go, the High Point, N.C. young gun was there, and a lap later he was knocking on the door — forcing Busch to throw two major blocks to try and break Blaney’s momentum.
The first one came halfway down the frontstretch, as Blaney looked all the way down to the wall and Busch cut down to stall him out, allowing third-running Harvick to close in.
The second came on Long Pond straightaway, off the exit of Turn 1, when Busch cut down to the left as Blaney got to his quarter-panel, forcing Blaney to regroup and make the pass heading through the short chute on entry to Turn 3.
Once Blaney got out in front, Harvick dispatched Busch quickly for second, but could not ultimately get alongside Blaney to make a play for the win in his own right.
“We got behind a couple of times and were able to make it back up. Then I missed a shift and went from third to second,” said Harvick, who was worried about potential engine trouble in the final stage of Sunday’s race. “I have to thank the Roush-Yates engine shop for building a pretty sturdy engine there, because it should have blown up and it never blew up.”
“I think there at the end, I couldn’t get into the corner like we needed to at the end. I couldn’t stop like I needed to and he could charge the corner. So I needed for him to make a mistake for me to try and get up underneath him on the exit of the corner. But he never made a mistake and did a great job … and wound up winning the race.”
Erik Jones notched his career-best Cup finish in third, followed by Kurt Busch and Keselowski.
Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott finished sixth through eighth, respectively, while Busch was relegated to ninth at the finish on his old tires.
Blaney, who spent nearly all of the race without the ability to talk to his crew on the radio, said afterwards that there was one thing he wished he could have done before pulling into victory lane to begin the party.
“I wanted to pick Eddie and Len up. I wanted to find them and pick them up, but it figures the one race we don’t have radio communication we end up winning it. Maybe we should turn the radio off more often, but I wanted to try to find Eddie and Len. I wanted to give them a ride to victory lane. That would have been cool, but maybe if we can get another one we’ll be able to do that.”
Blaney will have a chance to get another win, as well as tally the Wood Brothers’ 100th win as a team, on June 18 when the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to action at Michigan Int’l Speedway.
Full race results can be viewed on the next page…
