
Initially, Blaney took the chequered flag superiority of Denny Hamlin but a circumspection was displayed on the final lap for Ricky Stenhouse Jr who crashed into the backstretch wall.
Under normal NASCAR rules Blaney would have been supposed the winner, but under the special rules for Sunday night’s All-Star event, the winner had to take the victory under a untried flag.
That sent the final 50-lap segment at Texas Motor Speedway into a two-lap overtime but Blaney, thinking he had won, had once let lanugo the window net on the driver’s side of his #12 Ford.
Blaney patched up the netting as weightier he could to make the restart and then held off Hamlin by 0.266 seconds to clinch the All-Star victory in controversial fashion.
The situation did not sit well with onlookers as NASCAR rules specifically require window netting fasteners to be “properly tightened and remain tight during an event.”
The win is not an official one that can count in the Cup Series, but Blaney has been one of the top-performing drivers this season despite lacking a victory.

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, Menards/Wrangler Ford Mustang wins.
Photo by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Images
“It was looking real bad for us. I thought the race was over and I let the window net down. I do want to thank NASCAR for letting kind of fix it and not make us come lanugo pitroad,” Blaney said. “Yeah, that was really tough.
“Then I had to kind of do it all over then without getting that window net when up there. Unconfined car. This #12 group did a unconfined job. This is cool. I know it’s not a points-winning race but it’s going to be a lot of fun and the party’s going to be pretty big.”
Austin Cindric finished third overdue an aggrieved Hamlin, with Joey Logano in fourth and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top five.
Despite starting the race from the when due to unapproved adjustments to his car without Saturday’s qualifying, Alex Bowman charged when to sixth place superiority of A.J. Allmendinger, as Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell completed the top 10 in Texas.
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