BLANEY BATTLES BACK FOR TOP-10 FINISH AT CORONADO

Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang Dark Horse team turned in their fifth-consecutive top-10 finish - and 12th on the season to tie for the Cup Series lead - in Sunday's inaugural Anduril 250 on Naval Base Coronado. After starting on row two for the 75-lap event, Blaney led his first of a race-high 12 laps when he took the lead four laps in before opening up a nearly three-second advantage in the early going. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler opted to split the first 20-lap stage in half, calling Blaney to pit road from the lead on lap 10 for a four-tire stop. A caution two laps later fell in the 12 team's favor as Blaney was able to carve his way back to the front with four laps remaining in Stage 1 en route to his second stage win of the season. Varying tire strategies began to take shape in Stage 2 as Blaney was running just outside the top-20 when a multi-car incident unraveled in turn one, eventually bringing out the red flag on lap 32. Once the race went back green, Blaney again made quick work of those ahead at a tire disadvantage and picked off a few positions due to teams flipping the stage to come away with a fifth-place finish in the second segment. After staying out between stages, Blaney lined up to restart third and regained the lead on lap 48 before eventually giving way to the No. 5 on eight-lap fresher tires. Hassler called Blaney to pit road with 22 laps to go for what was thought to be his final stop of the afternoon, but the caution flag flew six laps later to set up one final four tire stop before the final restart with 12 laps remaining. After taking the green flag from 21st, Blaney worked his way into the top-10 in just four laps before taking the checkered flag ninth.