SOLID WEEKEND IN COTA FOR BLANEY AND THE TWELVE TEAM

Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse team gained four spots in the NASCAR Cup Series driver points standings with an eighth-place finish Sunday at Circuit of the Americas. Blaney was a mainstay in the top-three from the drop of the green flag in the 95-lap event and took his first lead of the afternoon eight laps in before opening up a five-second lead on the field. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler made the call to flip the opening stage, bringing Blaney to pit road from the lead with three laps remaining in Stage 1 which allowed the No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford to assume the lead prior to start of the second segment. Blaney settled into second in the running order and stayed within a second of the leader during the ensuing run before the same strategy came into play prior to the stage end as he hit pit road with three laps to go in Stage 2 for a four tire stop. Due to the lead the top two had built prior to the green flag stops, Blaney was able to blend back inside the top-10 to come away with a seventh-place result in Stage 2. After the field cycled during the stage caution, Blaney lined up to take the restart from row one and continued to challenge for the top spot. With one and two-stop strategies in play to make it to the end, Hassler made the call to only make one stop the rest of the way which saw Blaney come down pit road with 27 laps to go. Blaney began his charge back towards the front after rejoining the field 11th in the running order and reached as high as third on the leaderboard before the caution flag flew with 21 laps remaining. After staying out and taking the green flag of the final restart with 17 to go, Blaney settled into third and eventually dropped to eighth over the course of the final run as teams with fresher tires made their way to the front in the closing laps. Blaney ended the afternoon with 11 laps led, marking a career-high at Circuit of the Americas in his sixth start at the Austin road course.