Ryan Blaney takes first career win in Nationwide Series - MotorSportsTalk

19-year-old Ryan Blaney withstood multiple late restarts to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series’ Kentucky 300 tonight at Kentucky, earning his first career NNS triumph by two seconds over another member of NASCAR’s next generation, Austin Dillon.

A string of incidents within the final 40 laps marred the latter stages of the race, but Blaney was able to hold on to the point despite some tense moments. On the next-to-last restart with 14 laps to go, Blaney was side-by-side with Sam Hornish Jr., when the former Indianapolis 500 winner got loose on Blaney’s inside and nearly collected him. Blaney managed to scoot by, while Hornish made a tremendous save and kept going.

Shortly after that, Parker Kligerman was bumped into the tri-oval wall to set up a final restart with nine laps to go – with Blaney and Dillon leading the field down to the green. But Blaney once again stood strong and would go on to not only secure his own inaugural NNS win, but also the 10th win of the year for Penske Racing’s No. 22 NNS squad.

“It’s really tough to hold onto the lead, especially on the outside,” Blaney told ESPN in Victory Lane. “You really have to keep the guy pinned down on the inside, and there were a couple of really hairy situations on the restarts.

“But everyone here at Penske Racing has done an awesome job of giving me a great Discount Tire Ford…I’m really fortunate to drive for these guys, and I’m the fourth different driver to win in this car. That’s very cool. It just shows how good this team is, and I really hope we can get that owner’s championship.”

The Penske NNS No. 22 has earned five checkered flags this year with Brad Keselowski, two apiece with Joey Logano and A.J. Allmendinger, and now one with Ryan, who is the son of current Sprint Cup driver Dave Blaney.

Ryan’s crew chief, Jeremy Bullins, praised the youngster for his performance.

“…I’ve never been more proud of a win,” Bullins said. “That kid’s something else. He did a great job, this Mustang was flawless all night. The guys on pit road did an awesome job and I can’t say enough about the job [Ryan] did.”

Dillon’s second-place finish enabled him to make up some ground in the NNS championship on Hornish, who was able to recover and finish fourth behind third-place driver Matt Crafton. Hornish’s lead is now down to 15 points over Dillon.

Alex Bowman rounded out the Top 5 tonight in the Bluegrass State.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”