Martin Truex Jr. had the lead heading into the final turn, literally yards from the finish line, with Jimmie Johnson driving hard to catch him. Johnson went too hard into the turn, hit Truex Jr., and both drivers spun out.

Blaney, running third, then crossed the finish line for his second career victory.

“We were just in the right spot at the right time,” Blaney said after the race. “But we put ourselves in a good spot.”

That late crash proved especially costly to Johnson. The seven-time NASCAR Cup champion, who could have played it safe on that last lap and continued to the next round of the NASCAR playoffs, instead was eliminated. He actually finished tied for the final two second-round playoff spots with Aric Almirola and Kyle Larson, but lost on a tiebreaker, based on each driver’s best first-round finish.

“I was more worried about the win than anything else,” Johnson said.

Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones were the other three drivers eliminated as the first round of the playoffs concluded.

No one knew what to expect heading into the first NASCAR Cup race on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s new “Roval” road course. But the closing laps featured a multi-car crash reminiscent of the “Big One” often seen at Daytona and Talladega. On a restart with six laps remaining, leader Brad Keselowski went into the first turn, had no grip in his tires, and drove straight into the retaining wall.

Several other front-runners and playoff drivers piled into the resulting logjam of cars.

“The whole field went down into Turn 1 and went straight, it’s like we all overdrove it,” Keselowski said.

Jamie McMurray finished second, followed by Clint Bowyer and Alex Bowman.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup results at Charlotte

  1. Ryan Blaney2. Jamie McMurray3. Clint Bowyer4. Alex Bowman5. Kurt Busch6. Chase Elliott7. AJ Allmendinger8. Jimmie Johnson9. Kevin Harvick10. Joey Logano11. Ryan Newman12. Denny Hamlin 13. Matt DiBenedetto14. Martin Truex Jr.15. Regan Smith16. David Ragan17. Chris Buescher 18. Michael McDowell19. Aric Almirola20. Cole Whitt 21. Daniel Suarez22. Ty Dillon23. Daniel Hemric24. Ross Chastain25. Kyle Larson26. Jeffrey Earnhardt27. Justin Marks28. J.J. Yeley29. Landon Cassill30. Erik Jones31. Brad Keselowski32. Kyle Busch33. Paul Menard34. William Byron35. Trevor Bayne36. Bubba Wallace37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.38. Timmy Hill39. Austin Dillon40. Stanton Barrett

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