BLANEY CAUGHT UP IN THE BIG ONE AT TALLADEGA

Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Wurth Ford Mustang Dark Horse team began the afternoon on a high note with a fifth-place finish in Stage 1 but were collected in a 26-car incident during the opening run of the second stage, resulting in a 37th-place finish at Talladega. After qualifying was rained out Saturday, Blaney took the green flag from 15th as the field formed three-wide to start the 98-lap stage. With varying fuel strategies in play, the pack began to run single-file by lap 25 before Blaney was called to pit road on lap 47 with the third group of cars as the 12 team serviced the Wurth Ford with four tires and fuel. Blaney went back into fuel save mode to begin the following run along with the group of cars he pitted with, allowing them to become the lead pack with 10 laps remaining in Stage 1. The pace started to pick up with under five laps to go as Blaney worked the top lane to enter the top-five as the 12 team was able to pull off a 50-lap run on fuel to pick up a fifth-place finish in the longest stage of the day. Following another four tire stop prior to the start of Stage 2, Blaney restarted from the outside of row three and eventually pushed teammate Joey Logano to the lead on lap 110, vaulting the No. 12 to second in the running order in the process. A three-wide battle for the top spot shuffled the leaders a few laps later before a spin at the front of the field at the entrance of turn three set off a 26-car pileup as Blaney was hit in the right rear and sent sliding into the outside wall. The 12 team attempted to make repairs in the garage area but was unable to return to the track, culminating in a 37th-place finish.