Ryan Blaney talks about ‘ironic’ aspect of his Phoenix victory

Ryan Blaney won Sunday’s championship race at Phoenix, even though he was not a championship contender. He said he wasn’t great on restarts all day, so when the final overtime restart at Phoenix catapulted him to the victory, Blaney was pleasantly surprised.

After the race was over, Blaney spoke with renowned journalist and NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck about it. Gluck took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and shared exactly what Blaney told him.

“It’s ironic we won it on a restart, because we were terrible on restarts all day,” Blaney told Gluck, according to the latter’s post on X.

In 2023, Ryan Blaney became the first champion in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series to not win the grand finale. Ross Chastain won the coveted race that year. Two years later, Blaney flipped the script by returning the favor to Kyle Larson, the 2025 Cup Series champion.

“It’s nice to finally get in Victory Lane here after being so close for a number of years," Blaney told the reporters after the race. "Those things kind of stick in your brain a little bit. We’ve had a shot to win at these certain places a handful of times, but we haven’t really been able to get the job done.”

Rounding off the top five spots were Brad Keselowski, Larson, Joey Logano, and Kyle Busch. Denny Hamlin, who entered the race as the longest-tenured driver without a championship, ended up sixth. Next up for the drivers is the 68th running of the Daytona 500, which is scheduled for February 15, 2026.

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Ryan Blaney weighs in on Denny Hamlin’s fateful Phoenix outing

Denny Hamlin the most dominant driver at Phoenix all day. He won the pole, led a race-high 208 of 312 laps, and even won Stage 2. However, Hamlin fell prey to the unforgiving nature of the current playoff format and Ryan Blaney felt for him.

Hamlin will turn 45 in a few weeks, which means he doesn’t have a lot of time left to win a championship as most drivers retire in their late 40s. Blaney gets that. He knew Hamlin was better than everyone else in terms of speed, strategy, and execution, at least for much of the race.

“Yeah, you do have to feel for that group and Denny,” Ryan Blaney admitted. “Doing a good job all day, it not playing out for him. "But that is racing. It sucks sometimes. They can hang their head about it, but they should be very proud about the effort they put in today. They had the fastest race car here. Just one of those things where it doesn't work out," he added.

Hendrick Motorsports icon Kyle Larson is now a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, and the first driver in the 11-year history of the elimination-style playoffs to win the title without leading a single lap.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua