Blaney, who had taken the lead on a restart on Lap 76, had trouble passing the lapped auto of Derrike Cope.
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He has visited victory lane 32 times in his Sprint Cup career – and with wins in the last two races and three of the last four, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is used to raising the ultimate prize over his head.
Hamilton won the pole position Saturday for the Hungarian Grand Prix, where he will start at the front for the ninth time in 10 races this season and 47th time overall. This Discount Tire team doesn’t deserve that and I threw it away.
“I got tight and I got too deep and didn’t get off the long corner”, he explained.
Ryan Blaney (22) is chased by Kyle Busch (54) late in the Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis.
“Fortunately there on that long run, I was behind Blaney and I was faster than he was, I could keep up with him, I could draft on him a little bit”, he said.
“It’s cool and it’s great and all, and made for an exciting last lap”, Busch said.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule heads to Indianapolis today for the Lilly Diabetes 250 race, even as the driver standings continue to define themselves as the 2015 season goes on, with sixty-eight points now separating the top five spots on the leaderboard.
“Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of my favorite places to race, and we as a company have had a lot of success at this track”, said Dillon, who finished third in his Brickyard debut in 2012. “I was able to capitalize on him losing momentum off Turn 2”. “We had it won and the driver gave it away”.
Busch nearly had an early-race gaffe as well when a miscommunication on the team’s first pit opportunity forced the Penske crew to change strategy; a move that delayed the stop and opened the window to pit off schedule. “I was trying to back off and get clean air”. Dillon, and a few others, instead, waited until after lap 35 to pit under green, planning to run the remainder of the race with just one additional stop.
Who had a bad day: Erik Jones, who started third, crashed on Lap 70 and finished 34th… Teammate Brendan Gaughan, Chase Elliott, Regan Smith and XFINITY Series points leader Chris Buescher will vie for the $100,000 bonus – they were the top four finishers at Dover among eligible drivers.
Blaney was hard on himself over an error that lost his team a sure win.
Brad Keselowski was second, followed by Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Tony Stewart says he’s looking forward to racing on his home track at Indy this weekend and hoping to score his first win since June 2013.
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“I’d love nothing more than to win some of these big races”, Busch said. Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them. “To me, it’s a special place to go to because of its heritage of being Indianapolis”.
