BLANEY BATTLES BACK FROM 31ST TO 2ND, BUT FALLS JUST SHORT AT MARTINSVILLE

Facing a must-win situation Sunday at Martinsville, Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse team came up one spot short of advancing to the Championship 4 for the third-consecutive season, bringing the 12 team's run in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs to an end. Blaney overcame a 31st-place starting position and charged his way up to seventh by the end of Stage 1, proving to be one of the strongest cars in the field on the long run. With track position in his favor, Blaney maintained top-10 pace while managing tire wear during the opening run of the second segment before working his way up to second in the running order at the time of the caution with 18 laps to go in Stage 2. Blaney was one of a handful of the leaders brought to pit road under yellow in order to flip the stage, resulting in an 11th-place finish in the segment. After the remainder of the leaders pitted between stages, Blaney cycled to second to take the ensuing restart from the outside of row one and took his first lead of the day on lap 274 - the first of Martinsville-best 177 laps led on the afternoon. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler called Blaney to pit road during the green flag cycle on lap 377 and as he was making his way off pit road the caution flag flew, trapping all but seven cars a lap down in the process. Blaney was one of those seven and ultimately assumed the lead when the remaining cars pit under caution, allowing him to maintain control of the race when the field took the green with 111 laps to go. The Discount Tire Ford continued to pace the field over the course of the final run before lapped traffic allowed the No. 24 to cut into Blaney's lead with just under 50 laps remaining. The No. 24 made what turned out to be the race-winning move with 44 laps to go, making contact with Blaney's left rear quarter panel at the entry to turn one and moving him out of the way as Blaney worked to take back the top spot with the laps winding down. A caution with 19 laps to go set up one final round of pit stops with the 12 team getting Blaney off pit road second prior to the final restart with 11 laps left, but he was unable to regain the lead in the closing laps, culminating in a second-place effort.