Ryan Blaney and the Wood Brothers win at Pocono in thrilling finish

On Sunday, he carried the venerable No. 21 Motorcraft Ford back to Victory Lane at Pocono Raceway for the third time at the 2.5-mile track and the first time since Trevor Bayne won the 2011 Daytona 500.

Blaney led the final 10 laps to win his first Monster Energy Cup Series win in his 68th start,

“I cant believe it,” Blaney said.

Blaney, 24, was the third first-time winner of 2017. Kevin Harvick was second followed by Erik Jones, Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski.

"It's a hard one to process," Blaney said in an impromptu interview in Victory Lane with fellow Cup driver Brad Keselowski, who was quickly added to Fox Sports announce team after Blaney took the checkered flag. "First, we had to pass Kyle (Busch), he was older tires and he was struggling on older tires.

"Then, we had to hold Kevin (Harvick) off. He was really fast all day. I just didn't want to make a mistake - that would have been the worst thing to do. I have to thank him for racing me really clean.

"It's the Wood Brothers' 99th win and that's really special and it was a lot of fun."

Keselowski then asked what the party was going to be like and Blaney responded, "Well, you're invited! I'm definitely going to party with these guys (his team) because they're a great group. We've had a lot of bad luck the past month-and-a-half, and it's great to be back to where we should run.

"This is really cool, really cool."

Kyle Busch took the green flag with 54 laps remaining in the Pocono 400. Erik Jones lined up second followed by Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Danica Patrick, Paul Menard, Daniel Suarez, Trevor Bayne, Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Blaney quickly moved up to second on the restart. After the first five laps, it was Busch, Blaney, Jones, Truex, Patrick, Kurt Busch, Menard, Bayne and Chase Elliott.

With 40 laps remaining, Busch held a 4.4-second lead over Blaney with the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford closing in. Jones ran third followed by Truex, Kurt Busch, Elliott, Hamlin, Larson, Harvick and Keselowski.

The leaders started pitting on Lap 123, first with Jones, Blaney from second-place on Lap 124 followed by Harvick, Bayne and Menard. Kyle Busch pit from the lead on Lap 125 turning he lead over to Truex. Truex led five laps before pitting on Lap 129.

On Lap 130, Keselowski took the point followed by Ty Dillon and Stenhouse. All three drivers had yet to pit in the segment. Busch passed Stenhouse, then Dillon but when Keselowski crossed the line on Lap 135, he held an 11.9-second lead over Kyle Busch. Dillon pit on the same lap. Stenhouse came to pit road one lap later.

With 20 laps remaining, Keselowski relinquished the lead to pit. Kyle Busch took the point followed by Truex, Blaney, Harvick, Kurt Busch, Larson, Elliott, Jones, Hamlin and Logano. Busch had a 7.8-second lead over Truex.

The fourth caution occurred that same lap when Kasey Kahne hit the wall in Turn 1. He was running 19th.

Busch remained on the track along with Keselowski. Jones, who took right-side tires, was the first car off of pit road followed by Blaney, Truex, Harvick, Kurt Busch, Stenhouse, Elliott, Hamlin, Larson, Menard, Kenseth, Logano, Austin Dillon and Danica Patrick.

Twenty-four cars remained on lead lap when the race returned to green with 13 laps remaining. Busch extended his lead as Blaney rolled past Keselowski and Jones for second. Harvick was fourth followed by Keselowski on Lap 148. Kurt Busch, Truex, Elliott, Stenhouse and Hamlin rounded out the top 10.

With 10 to go, Blaney moved to the inside of Busch for the lead with Harvick passing Jones for third. Harvick passed Busch for second on the next lap. With seven laps remaining, Busch dropped to fifth on old tires. Blaney’s advantage was 0.487-seconds over Harvick followed by Jones, Keselowski and Busch.

Blaney had a two-car lead on Harvick coming to the line with four laps remaining. Harvick continued to stalk the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford all the way to the white flag. Blaney beat Harvick to the line by 0.139-seconds.

Truex, Larson, Elliott, Kyle Busch and Kenseth rounded out the top 10.

Watch a recap of Blaney's historic win below. Click on the image to watch: 

Busch’s 100-lap led were a race high. There were 13 lead changes among nine drivers. The race was slowed by four cautions for 18 laps.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	160		10
2	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	160	0.139
3	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	160	1.822	20
4	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	160	3.112
5	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	160	3.328	11
6	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	160	4.557	5
7	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	160	4.764	9
8	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	160	5.889
9	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	160	7.265	100
10	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	160	7.625
11	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	160	8.608	3
12	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	160	8.996	1
13	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	160	9.824
14	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	160	10.579
15	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	160	11.766	1
16	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	160	12.955
17	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	160	13.879
18	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	160	15.593
19	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	160	15.651
20	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	160	15.702
21	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	160	17.382
22	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	160	18.046
23	22	Joey Logano	Ford	160	27.534
24	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	160	42.487
25	38	David Ragan	Ford	159	1 lap
26	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Ford	159	1 lap
27	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	158	2 laps
28	83	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	157	3 laps
29	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	156	4 laps
30	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	155	5 laps
31	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	154	6 laps
32	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	153	7 laps
33	55	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	153	7 laps
34	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	146	14 laps
35	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	140	20 laps
36	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	95	65 laps
37	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	95	65 laps
38	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	58	102 laps
39	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	35	125 laps