Ryan Blaney would have walked away with mixed feelings at the end of the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. After hovering around the top 10 for a bit, Blaney ended up in contention for the race win before a shove from Denny Hamlin pushed him down the pack.

Not mincing his words post-race, Blaney said: “From my seat, I feel like it's unnecessary, I don't feel like I kinda got pinched, I feel like I got driven into the fence.”

The incident took place at the end of the 334th lap when Ryan Blaney was on the outside line attempting to get level and go past Denny Hamlin. Blaney had pulled off a similar move before he pitted on Austin Cindric, but this time it was after a restart, leaving the drivers uncomfortably close.

Approaching turn 4, Blaney’s front left wheel was in line with Hamlin’s right rear. Coming off the corner, Hamlin leaned to the right, pushing Blaney into the wall. Blaney, who started the race from 12th for Team Penske, had built up a steady momentum that was abruptly stopped by Hamlin’s “unnecessary” move, according to Blaney.

The car #12 driver managed to salvage a sixth-place finish despite the incident. “I'm not sure if it knocked the tow out a little bit, but I was pretty tight after that. Luckily, we were able to get one or two spots back after that happened,” said Blaney after the race.

Hamlin owns up to mistake 

Denny Hamlin finished the race in second place, despite leading for the majority of it. He was beaten by Chase Elliott, who pulled off an unbelievable move to help HMS get its first Cup Series win of the year.

Hamlin's incident with Blaney happened in his pursuit of trying to secure the win, but he agreed to the mistake after the race.

When asked by reporters if the move was unnecessary, like Blaney said, Hamlin agreed. 

“I wouldn't disagree,” said Denny Hamlin, “I had lost control off of turn 4, spun the rears and just got higher than I wanted to be.”

After the first seven races, Ryan Blaney currently sits in 2nd in the championship standings, 12 points ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin. The fight for the playoffs will be a tight one, and the incident at Martinsville may have bigger repercussions for both Blaney and Hamlin.

With a week off from NASCAR, both drivers will be planning to relax a little and prepare for Bristol. Considering the point differential, the battle for Top 3 is expected to go down to the wire, especially with the Chase Format introduced at the start of the season.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri