Ryan Blaney scores third Talladega win, spot in the Round of 8

Team Penske remains in the hunt for a championship.

  Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

 Ryan Blaney has won for the eighth time as a Cup Series driver after a late drag race with Kevin Harvick.

The Team Penske driver didn’t have an easy path to Victory Lane on Sunday. He still locked up some crucial playoff points by winning the opening stage and then the race. This added six playoff points to his total. Now he has an opportunity to continue his pursuit of a championship.

PHOTO FINISH at @Talladega!

Ryan @Blaney beats Kevin Harvick by 0.012 seconds. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/4UAx7T8NAK

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 1, 2023

 Blaney won by .012 seconds on Sunday. This was his largest margin of victory at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. He won by .007 seconds in both 2019 and 2020. Sunday’s win was also Blaney’s third consecutive top-two finish at Talladega.

“To win three times here at Talladega, that’s super cool,” Blaney told NBC Sports after the race. “I have to give a big thanks to Riley Herbst, he did a really good job there the last couple of restarts. He hasn’t had a lot of Cup starts, but he did a great job of pushing me.”

This performance was pivotal for Blaney considering that he entered the Talladega weekend sitting 11 points below the cutline. He would have gained ground on other drivers considering that both Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski failed to finish the race, but now he does not have to worry about the elimination race at the Charlotte Roval.