The Cup Series driver who needed Sunday’s win at Talladega Superspeedway more than anybody – well, everybody but one – found a way to grab his free pass into the next round.

Sitting next-to-last in the playoff standings heading into the day, Ryan Blaney made what would be a critical move diving down to the bottom lane in front of William Byron in the final laps. Blaney then beat veteran Kevin Harvick to the checkered flag to win the YellaWood 500 as cars crashed behind them.

“You just got to drag race to the line and hope you get help,” said Blaney, who won by 0.012 seconds. “William gave me a pretty good shove, but he was forced to.”

Blaney also got pushing help late from one of the more unlikely candidates in the field, Riley Herbst. The 24-year-old was making his fourth Cup Series start, all of which have come at superspeedways.

“I have to give a big thanks to Riley Herbest, he did a really good job there the last couple restarts,” Blaney said. “He doesn’t have a lot of Cup starts but he did a great job pushing me.”

Herbst got shuffled out at the end and finished 10th.

The win, Blaney’s third at Talladega Superspeedway, advances him to the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs along with William Byron. The final race in the Round of 12 – the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course is next Sunday at 1 p.m.

Harvick finished second, followed by playoff drivers William Byron and Denny Hamlin. Corey LaJoie rounded out the top five.

It was his first victory at Talladega Superspeedway since he went back-to-back with the fall race of 2019 and the COVID-postponed spring race of 2020.

This post will be updated.