Ryan Blaney wins Geico 500 in wild finish at Talladega

Ryan Blaney wins at Talladega

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

An event that began with a massive show of support for Bubba Wallace ended with one of Wallace's best friends, Ryan Blaney, celebrating in Victory Lane for the second straight race at Talladega Superspeedway.

In a frenetic overtime dash, Blaney won Monday's GEICO 500 by .007 seconds over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as crashing cars bounced of each other and the outside wall behind the top two finishers. The victory was Blaney's first of the season, second straight at the 2.66-mile track and the fourth of his career.

It was a day that started ominously—and not because of the rain clouds that threatened to delay the race for a second straight day and in fact caused a stoppage of 57 minutes, 18 seconds after 57 laps were complete on Monday.

News that a noose had been discovered Sunday evening in the garage stall of Wallace, the NASCAR Cup Series' only African-American driver, dominated national headlines and brought strong statements of condemnation from both NASCAR and team owner Richard Petty.

Team owner Ricard Petty came to Talladega to support his driver, Bubba Wallace

Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images

Drivers and their crews assembled before the race to escort Wallace and his car to the head of the grid. The lasting image of the pre-race was Wallace being embraced by a succession of his fellow competitors.

Nearly five hours later, Wallace was congratulating Blaney in Victory Lane after a scintillating conclusion that saw Blaney knocking the Toyota of Eric Jones into the outside wall as the cars approached the finish line—and still managing to beat Stenhouse to the stripe by roughly 12 inches.

"I just kind of blocked, just trying to block the best we could," Blaney said. "Ride the top, ride the bottom. The 20 (Jones) got to my outside, and I tried to go up there to slow him down and… I'm not sure, I don't know… three-wide, I hate that I hit him, but just kind of trying to beat and bang to the line and things like that.

"We just edged it out, but I'm really proud of this whole Menards/Sylvania Ford Mustang team. It's been a cool year so far, and I'm really excited to get our first win of the year at a cool place. Thank you everybody for coming… That was a lot of fun."

Ford drivers have won nine of the last 10 Talladega Cup races.

Ryan Blaney (12) leads the field to the finish line on the final lap at Talladega

Chris Graythen | Getty Images

Aric Almirola slid sideways across the finish line to claim third place, with Denny Hamlin and Jones following in fourth and fifth, respectively. Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10.

Wallace, who spearheaded efforts within the sport to ban the Confederate flag from NASCAR events, climbed from his car after a 14th-place finish and saluted fans who gathered at the catchfence to greet him. As the next phase of the reopening of the sport, 5,000 fans were allowed to attend the race.

"The sport is changing," Wallace said, as he stood in front of the first grandstand. "The deal that happened yesterday… I wanted to show whoever it was that you're not going to take away my smile. I'm going to keep on going. I've been a part of this sport for a really long time…

"All in all, we won today. The pre-race deal was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to witness in my life, from all the supporters, from drivers and crew members and everybody here. It's truly incredible, and I'm proud to be a part of this sport."

Stenhouse said that the fans were chanting for Wallace before the start of the race, loud enough for the drivers to hear it on pit road.

Results

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MANUF	LAPS	BEHIND
1	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	191	0.000s
2	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevy	191	0.007
3	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	191	0.025
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	191	0.085
5	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	191	0.093
6	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	191	0.114
7	88	Alex Bowman	Chevy	191	0.171
8	38	John Hunter Nemechek #	Ford	191	0.180
9	1	Kurt Busch	Chevy	191	0.199
10	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	191	0.206
11	24	William Byron	Chevy	191	0.314
12	13	Ty Dillon	Chevy	191	0.339
13	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevy	191	0.373
14	43	Bubba Wallace	Chevy	191	0.583
15	37	Ryan Preece	Chevy	191	4.931
16	22	Joey Logano	Ford	191	5.568
17	32	Corey LaJoie	Ford	191	5.955
18	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	191	6.046
19	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	191	6.619
20	8	Tyler Reddick #	Chevy	191	8.667
21	62	* Brendan Gaughan	Chevy	191	9.355
22	41	Cole Custer #	Ford	191	23.544
23	6	Ryan Newman	Ford	191	31.305
24	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	190	0.494
25	19	Martin Truex Jr	Toyota	190	0.688
26	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	190	0.864
27	00	Quin Houff #	Chevy	190	-1 Lap
28	96	* Daniel Suarez	Toyota	190	-1
29	95	Christopher Bell #	Toyota	190	-1
30	27	Gray Gaulding(i)	Ford	190	-1
31	77	BJ McLeod	Chevy	190	-1
32	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	189	-2
33	66	* Timmy Hill(i)	Toyota	185	-6
34	78	* Garrett Smithley(i)	Chevy	185	-6
35	15	Brennan Poole #	Chevy	178	-13
36	53	JJ Yeley(i)	Chevy	178	-13
37	51	Joey Gase(i)	Ford	141	-50
38	9	Chase Elliott	Chevy	135	-56
39	3	Austin Dillon	Chevy	133	-58
40	42	Matt Kenseth	Chevy	127	-64

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