Ryan Blaney wins NASCAR regular-season finale at Daytona - ESPN

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Blaney won a four-wide race across the Daytona International Speedway finish line Saturday night in NASCAR's regular-season finale, a victory that denied a long shot driver a spot in the playoffs and gave Alex Bowman postseason life.

Blaney was 13th with two laps to go but muscled his Team Penske Ford to the front and surged slightly ahead as he led the pack to the checkered flag. He beat Daniel Suarez by 0.031 seconds, Justin Haley by 0.036 seconds and Cole Custer by 0.049 seconds.

Erik Jones was fifth and Chris Buescher sixth. Any of the drivers behind Blaney would have been first-time winners this season and claimed the final spot in the 16-driver playoff field.

But Blaney, a former series champion already locked into the field, denied them of the Cinderella moment. His victory assured that Bowman, who crashed early in the race and had to watch for more than three hours on TV to learn his fate, would race for the championship this season.

The first 19 cars across the finish line were all within a half-second of Blaney, who wound up second in the regular-season standings. Daytona 500 winner William Byron had already wrapped up the regular-season title.

«What a wild couple last laps,» said Blaney, who waited until the end to aggressively move through traffic. «It's definitely not as traditional a way as we like to run them, we like to lead laps and things like that. We just couldn't really get there until the last second.»

Suarez, who is being replaced at Trackhouse Racing at the end of the season, was disappointed not to make the playoffs.

«All in all a good car. Just not enough and a little too late,» Suarez said.

Haley, who is likely to be replaced at Spire Motorsports at the end of the