Chaos in Texas, Ryan Blaney wins the All-Star Race

For the second year in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series arrived at Texas Motor Speedway for the annual NASCAR All-Star Race, where no points were on the line, just $1 Million! In a race that had a bit of a controversial ending, Ryan Blaney ended up taking home the win and the $1 Million. Blaney was cruising to the victory when as he was coming off turn four and coming to the checkered flag, the caution was waved right before he crossed the line. The rule for the All-Star Race is that the race MUST end under the green flag. Blaney also had his window net down, thinking he had won the race. What was thought that Blaney would be forced down pit road, Blaney worked frantically to reattach his window net to the best of his ability. The race restarted, as Blaney went on to win with Denny Hamlin in second.

Denny Hamlin was rather irate with NASCAR officials after the race, believing NASCAR should have black-flagged Ryan Blaney for his window net.

“Whatever the rule is, let’s be consistent and play by the rule,” Hamlin said after the race. “He should have won the race. He’s 100 yards from winning the race. It’s just, all I ask is, we know what the rules are, and we play by them. Where NASCAR got away with one, is that we nearly crashed on turn two, so when I send Blaney head-first into traffic, and the window net’s down, I don’t know. Then they got a lawsuit on their hands.”

Hamlin went on to explain his stance on Twitter afterward, explaining that, “Never should have been a yellow in the first place. They put Blaney in the situation he was in. To make up for it they let him break a rule. 2 wrongs don’t make a right. Blaney W, NASCAR L.”

NASCAR senior vice president Scott Miller also said to reporters after the race that they might have thrown out the caution prematurely.

“The race director looked up and we’re not sure what he saw,” Miller said, “but he immediately put (the caution) out. Wish we wouldn’t have done that, but we did that and we’ll own that we probably prematurely put that caution out.”

For Blaney, in the end, he still won the race and collected one million dollars. He gave his thoughts on the finish after winning.

“I do want to thank NASCAR for letting me kind of fix it and not make us come down pit road. That was really tough, and then having to do it all over again after trying to get the window net back up there,” Blaney told Fox Sports. “This is cool. I know it’s not a points-winning race, but it’s gonna be a lot of fun. Party’s gonna be pretty big.”

Austin Cindric finished third, Joey Logano was fourth and Open winner Daniel Suarez was fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski, and Christopher Bell. Daniel Suarez won the Open, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Chris Buescher advanced to the big dance via winning stages one and two of the open. Erik Jones ended up being the fan vote winner.

My Thoughts

I’m glad that NASCAR is experimenting with different things with the schedule by going to new venues and switching things around. The 2022 Season has been a banger so far and the NextGen car has been able to put on a good product and even help tracks that have underperformed in recent years. Many fans believe that Texas Motor Speedway is not the correct host for the All-Star Race, citing the on-track performance in recent years. While the race itself was average and had its crazy moments like when Kyle Busch cut a tire, causing Ross Chastain to nail Busch’s car and launch off of it like a ramp, it would be fun to see a rotation of the event kind of like the All-Star Game of other major sports. As for the late-race drama, I do feel like the late caution wasn’t needed and NASCAR admitted that it was thrown prematurely. Had the caution not come out, there would’ve been no controversy surrounding Blaney’s window net. The usual ruling states that you must have the window net intact while racing, which a rule was broken last night. Sure, it’s the All-Star Race and everyone is pushing their limit, but I feel like in the end that caution for Ricky Stenhouse Jr should not have been thrown. Regardless of the late-race chaos, the best-case scenario for that scenario occurred with Blaney winning and nothing serious happened beyond that.

Despite the insanity, NASCAR moves on next to Charlotte Motor Speedway next week for the longest race of the season, the Coca Cola 600 on Sunday, May 29^th at 6:00 PM EST.