NASCAR: Blaney out duels Larson to win NASCAR title

Ryan Blaney drove his #12 Penske Ford to 2nd place ahead of 3rd place Kyle Larson to win the 2023 NASCAR Cup title at Phoenix.

Ross Chastain won the race by just over 1-second.

Another playoff driver, William Byron, finished 4th, while the 4th Playoff driver did not finish.

Blaney had the lead among Championship 4 drivers when the caution flag flew for a Kyle Busch spin with 37 laps remaining. After losing that advantage on pit road, Blaney battled back on the ensuing restart to get past Byron and Larson, getting in front of them with 20 laps to go. Blaney held that position and finished second to race-winner Ross Chastain but first among the Championship 4 competitors.

It’s the second consecutive season Team Penske took home NASCAR’s top prize, with Blaney following Joey Logano’s 2022 title conquest. It also gives Ford a sweep of championships following titles by Cole Custer and Ben Rhodes earlier this weekend.

“Just so proud of this team,” Blaney said. “Unbelievable year, unbelievable playoffs for us. To win back-to-back Cup titles for Mr. Penske, that’s so special. Having my family here, winning my first Cup title, I got emotional in the car. I’m not a very emotional guy.

“Thank you, guys, for coming. Hope it was an awesome show.”

It took Blaney eight full seasons, but he joins Brad Keselowski and Logano as the three drivers to win Cup titles for Roger Penske.

In four previous trips to the Round of 8, Blaney came up empty-handed. This year, the No. 12 team stepped up at the right time, scoring a pair of playoff victories at Talladega and Martinsville en route to the championship.

Unlike previous seasons when Blaney made mistakes in the Round of 8, he rose to the occasion in 2023. Across the three races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville Speedway in the Round of 8, the No. 12 team posted an average finish of 3.0. He had an incredible run at Homestead by leading 53 laps and finishing second, then stamped his name into the Championship 4 in a dominant second-half performance at Martinsville, tallying his third victory of the season.

“You never want to count yourself out,” Blaney said. “I mean, I think in the summer we were struggling a little bit. But we never gave up. We just went to work. I’ve said that all week, like, this group goes to work and they figure out problems. That’s why they’re such an amazing group to be with, with the Team Penske folks, ’cause they just put their head down and do the work, accept the challenge.

“That’s what we did. It’s not happenstance we started running good through the playoffs. It was a lot of hard work by a lot of amazing men and women at the shop. I can’t thank them enough for that.”

Blaney entered the championship race with consecutive runner-up results in the desert, including to his teammate Logano last season when the driver of the No. 22 Ford won his second championship. But the No. 12 team had the fewest top fives and laps led of the four eligible drivers. He was tied with Larson for the fewest number of top 10s. Three of Blaney’s seven top fives in the opening 35 races of the season came over a five-race run in the playoffs.

All it took was one race of perfection, though, from Blaney for him to capture the crown. He is the first driver from his illustrious racing family to win a NASCAR championship.

It was also a shining moment for crew chief Jonathan Hassler, who just completed his second full season as a crew chief. Together, they went from a goose egg in the win column in their first season to sitting at the champion’s table in Nashville later this month during Champion’s Week.

“Yeah, his car was really fast. Really the last few months,” said Larson. “Yeah, especially here today. Our pit crew and pit road really kept us in the game. We weren’t the greatest on the track, but I was just hoping for pit stops ’cause I knew the way our team executed our lights, the way our pit crew can execute a fast pit stop, I knew that was going to be our only shot really to win.

“They did everything in their power to give us the winning job done there. Huge thank you to them. I needed to come out the leader on that restart. Ross got a really good start from the second row. Was hoping I could get clear of Denny and get the lead, have Ross kind of protect for me behind me.

“I’m not sure if it would have made a difference. I was just not as good as a few guys, especially Blaney and Ross probably. It would have been difficult. But my team did a really good job all season, so I’m extremely proud of them. We had an up-and-down year and we finally put together two solid weeks in a row. I don’t know if we’ve done that all year.

“Yeah, just huge thank you to Hendrickcars.com, Team Chevy, Valvoline, Jinya Ramen Bar, everybody back at Hendrick Motorsports, the shop. Everyone.

“We’ll come back next year and try to be stronger.

“Congrats to Team Penske and their whole team. We’ll try and beat ’em next year.”

Blaney is the 36th different driver all-time in the NASCAR Cup Series to win a championship.

In 36 starts this season, Blaney has put up three wins, eight top fives and 18 top 10s.

During the Playoffs this season, Blaney has produced two wins, four top fives, and six top 10s.

This is Team Penske’s fourth NASCAR Cup Series driver championship – Brad Keselowski, 2012; Joey Logano, 2018, 2022; Ryan Blaney, 2023 – sixth-most all-time in the series.

This is Team Penske’s fourth NASCAR Cup Series owner championship – Brad Keselowski, 2012; Joey Logano, 2018, 2022; Ryan Blaney, 2023 – sixth-most all-time in the series.

This is Team Penske’s 10th NASCAR national series owner championship (four Cup: 2012, 2018, 2022, 2023 and six Xfinity: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021) – fourth-most all-time.

Team Penske has led 10 different drivers to Victory Lane for a total of 139 NASCAR Cup Series wins – Mark Donahue, Bobby Allison, Rusty Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric.

Race Result

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MANUF	BEHIND	LAPS
1	1	Ross Chastain		—	312
2	12	Ryan Blaney (P)		1.230	312
3	5	Kyle Larson (P)		3.273	312
4	24	William Byron (P)		5.349	312
5	17	Chris Buescher		5.784	312
6	19	Martin Truex Jr.		5.864	312
7	4	Kevin Harvick		6.336	312
8	11	Denny Hamlin		8.928	312
9	34	Michael McDowell		10.238	312
10	23	Bubba Wallace		12.237	312
11	99	Daniel Suarez		12.486	312
12	3	Austin Dillon		13.028	312
13	10	Aric Almirola		13.649	312
14	41	Ryan Preece		14.097	312
15	6	Brad Keselowski		15.443	312
16	9	Chase Elliott		15.687	312
17	48	Alex Bowman		16.544	312
18	22	Joey Logano		16.921	312
19	42	Carson Hocevar(i)		18.293	312
20	43	Erik Jones		19.063	312
21	54	Ty Gibbs #		19.381	312
22	45	Tyler Reddick		20.573	312
23	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		22.719	312
24	14	Chase Briscoe		22.777	312
25	8	Kyle Busch		-1	311
26	21	Harrison Burton		-1	311
27	15	JJ Yeley(i)		-1	311
28	77	Ty Dillon		-2	310
29	31	Justin Haley		-2	310
30	38	Todd Gilliland		-3	309
31	7	Corey LaJoie		-4	308
32	16	AJ Allmendinger		-4	308
33	78	BJ McLeod(i)		-6	306
34	51	Ryan Newman(i)		-7	305
35	2	Austin Cindric		-11	301
36	20	Christopher Bell (P)		-204	108

# DENOTES ROOKIE
(i) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME