Could Ryan Blaney Have Done Anything Different Before Letting Atlanta Win Slip Away?

0.003 seconds. That is a period that not only reads and sounds impossibly low, but in most ways, it is a ridiculously short amount of time for a human mind to process anything, let alone make a decision. But as things stood at the checkered flag in Atlanta on Sunday night, 0.003 seconds was the margin with which Ryan Blaney lost the race to Daniel Suarez. So naturally and obviously, there wasn’t much he could’ve done at the finish line to change the result.

This was what Blaney also pointed to in a post-race interview. When the defending NASCAR Cup champion was asked if there was something he could’ve done differently at the finish line, he replied, “Not at the finish line,” and explained what his mindset was in those final few laps.

“I thought I laid back enough in one and two to kind of not let both lanes get that big of a run,” Blaney described. “I did that the three laps before the end and I was able to kind of manage it fairly well, but they just got both lanes shoving super hard. I just chose the bottom and the safest place to be.”

Blaney also pointed to the “cool finish” and thanked the fans for hanging around until the end. “That’s always a good time when we can do that, race clean, three-wide finish to the end. I’m happy for Daniel. That was cool to see. It was fun racing with Kyle.” The Penske driver also revealed why, despite losing the race by such a cruel margin, he has no complaints.

“I’ve won them by very, very little too, so I can’t complain too much when I lose them by that much,” he added.

The joy of racing superseded the sadness of losing for Ryan Blaney

Even though he ended up in the 2nd place by less than a second, Ryan Blaney wasn’t all that disappointed after the race in Atlanta. In fact, he claimed he “felt great” with the way the race went. Of course, in the moment, right after the checkered flag, he felt like, “Damn, that sucks,” considering he fell short by three inches.

But when he looked beyond that, it wasn’t all that sad. “It’s fun racing for the lead like that. We didn’t get tore up. The competitor in you, when you lose, you’re like ‘ah’ but I had fun tonight,” Blaney added.

Now one thing worth mentioning with all these positives coming out of the Atlanta race is that it has set pretty high standards for races to come this season, especially the one on the coming weekend. But then again, it’s not every weekend or every month or every year that a race ends in a three-wide photo finish with the winning driver being ahead by 0.003 seconds.