As Sunday’s race wound to a finish, Blaney and Harvick found themselves swapping pushes and the lead.
With two of 188 laps remaining, Stewart-Haas driver Harvick – looking for his first win in his last full-time season – appeared to have control of the race but saw Blaney edge past him for the lead thanks to help from Riley Herbst.
Blaney and Harvick raced side-by-side for virtually the entire final lap but, as a wreck erupted behind them on the frontstretch, Blaney nipped ahead of Harvick’s #4 Ford by 0.012 seconds to earn his second win of the 2023 season.
The victory sends Blaney into the semi-final round of the playoffs regardless of his finish in next weekend’s race at the Charlotte Roval.
Harvick’s car then failed post-race inspection after officials discovered unsecured windshield fasteners, which meant an unsecured windshield.
The 2014 Cup champion was duly disqualified from the final superspeedway appearance of his career, losing all stage points earned in the race and being demoted to 38th in the running order. He had already been eliminated from the playoffs after the round of 16 concluded at Bristol.
William Byron therefore inherited second, ahead of Denny Hamlin, Corey LaJoie and Austin Cindric.
Justin Haley, Chase Elliott, Ryan Preece, Herbst and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.
Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang and Martin Truex Jr, Joe Gibbs Racing, Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry
Photo by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Images
The four drivers lowest in the points without a win and therefore now most in danger of being eliminated from the playoffs with one race remaining in this round are Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick.
Blaney had earlier shown encouraging Talladega form by taking the Stage 1 win under caution as Chastain made contact with Busch and then slammed the wall on the final of 60 laps. The incident appeared to be triggered when Ricky Stenhouse Jr ran out of fuel and slowed dramatically.
Byron ended up second, Larson third, Elliott fourth and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five.
Brad Keselowski then held off a late charge from Byron to take the Stage 2 win by 0.07s. Joey Logano was third, Austin Dillon fourth and Elliott fifth.
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, all the lead-lap cars pitted with Logano first off pit road, but there was drama further back as Ty Gibbs drove off with his gas can still attached to his #54 Toyota and it caught fire after it dropped on pit road, dropping him to the rear of the field for the restart.
Exiting Turn 4 and coming down the frontstretch on lap 162, Keselowski got into the back of Carson Hocevar and turned him into the wall, which triggered a multi-car wreck that also collected Dillon, Chase Briscoe and Gibbs.
NASCAR was forced to red flag the race for nearly 10 minutes to clean the track of debris and repair an area of the SAFER barrier in the trioval.
All of the lead-lap cars pitted with Aric Almirola first off pit road. He led Harvick and Bowman when the race resumed with 20 laps to go.
Bowman led Blaney and Almirola on a restart with 13 laps remaining following a caution for debris in the racing groove on the backstretch.
Harvick then got a push into the lead from Blaney with 10 laps to go and the two engaged in a nip-and-tuck battle to the flag, with Blaney ultimately prevailing.