BATTLE-BACK TOP 5 FINISH IN DARLINGTON

Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Menards/Delta Ford Mustang Dark Horse team jumped to second in the points standings with a third-place finish Sunday at Darlington, Blaney's second top-five effort in his last three starts at the 1.366-mile oval. After starting seventh, Blaney worked his way up to fifth within the first 30 laps prior to the start of the green flag pit cycle. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler called the Menards/Delta Ford to pit road on lap 38 to begin the cycle, allowing Blaney to vault to second in the running order by the time the cycle completed, resulting in a third-place finish in Stage 1. A pit road penalty during the 12 team's stop between stages saw Blaney take the ensuing restart from 20th, but responded by charging up to 12th by lap 144. Blaney hit pit road five laps later towards the end of the green flag pit cycle and picked up a few spots over the final 18 laps of the segment, crossing the line 12th in Stage 2. Hassler planned to split the final stretch into a pair of 50-lap runs, but an early caution brought a majority of the field to pit road. Another issue on the stop shuffled Blaney back to 20th in the order prior to taking the green with 91 laps remaining, as he went on to go through the field once again to regain his place in the top-10 by lap 225. Blaney reached as high as sixth when Hassler made the call for the final stop of the day under green on lap 241 as the Menards/Delta Ford went on offense for the final 52-lap run. Blaney was scored fourth when the cycle completed and showed his strength of maintaining pace the rest of the way to take the checkered flag third with several of the leaders struggling with tire wear down the stretch.