On Sunday’s new edition of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin praised Ryan Blaney’s perfect strategy en route to victory in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Advertisement
Blaney went from 13th to victory lane in the last two laps, timing his passes perfectly and making sure he kept those behind him at bay until he crossed the finish line first.
“He (Blaney) was masterful in being patient,” Hamlin said. “If you noticed, he didn’t make a whole lot of moves. He allowed others to make moves and then he just held steady. He’s like, he knows who his help is. His spotter’s doing a good job telling him who’s behind him.
“He wasn’t one of those guys weaving between lanes and all this other stuff. He just was very patient and saying, ‘The top line is going to prevail here, so I’m going to stay in it.’”
Blaney decided to go with a unique strategy. Instead of him going to the race, so to speak, he let the race come to him. He watched as other drivers made mistakes or took the wrong lines or lost their drafting partners.
Instead, the No. 12 Team Penske driver got a great push to the front from Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez and that was what he needed to take the checkered flag. Suarez would finish runner-up, 0.031 seconds behind Blaney.
Hamlin continued, “As people start to get toward the front, they’re peeling off to block and it’s just moving him up the queue of that line. So at some point he’s probably fifth on the outside line. Well, the leader just keeps pulling down, a new guy comes up front. He takes the lead, he pulls down, new guy.
“So, (Blaney) keeps moving up the queue as the laps go on. And then on the last lap, he just got the great push (from Suarez). He moved up. It was very timely and good heads up of him and his spotter off of Turn 4 to move up in front of that top lane.
“The top lane was coming and Blaney was like, ‘I’m going to go back to the well’ and that’s what got him pushed out to the front.”
