BLANEY’S BRISTOL LEAD ENDS IN LATE-RACE INCIDENT
September 20, 2026BLANEY DELIVERS STRONG REBOUND IN KANSAS
RACE RUNDOWN
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 MENARDS/CARDELL FORD MUSTANG DARK HORSE
START: 25TH
STAGE 1: 10TH
STAGE 2: 7TH
FINISH: 5TH
POINTS: 5TH
Ryan Blaney rallied from the 25th starting position to score a fifth-place finish in Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, earning valuable stage points and delivering a much-needed rebound performance for the No. 12 team following a pair of challenging Chase races. With rain canceling practice and qualifying Saturday afternoon, Blaney took the green flag in the No. 12 Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang Dark Horse from 25th and methodically charged through the field. Blaney wasted little time advancing forward, climbing into the top 15 before the competition caution on lap 35 and continuing his charge toward the front throughout the opening stage. The No. 12 team made routine adjustments to improve the car's balance, and Blaney steadily worked his way to an 10th-place finish in Stage 1. Additional adjustments helped improve the handling of the Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang during Stage 2, allowing Blaney to crack the top 10 and remain a factor throughout the segment. He climbed to seventh by the end of the stage and added valuable stage points to his afternoon. After briefly inheriting the lead during a cycle of green-flag pit stops in the final stage, Blaney returned to the track inside the top 10 and continued his march forward over the closing laps. The 2023 Cup Series Champion steadily picked off positions in the final run to secure a fifth-place finish, completing a 20-position gain from race start. Blaney leaves Kansas Speedway fifth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, 91 points behind the championship leader, as the Chase continue next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Blaney's Thoughts
"We were moving at the end. And, gosh, seven or eight more laps and I might have actually had a shot to win the thing. We were mowing them down rapidly the last 10, 12 laps. Just a good job by them sticking with it. Starting where we did, you know, and just working on it. Getting a little bit better through the day, I thought. Our last run or two of the day was our best run of the day. So really proud of that effort. This is a place where we've worked really hard to try to figure out how we can be better here. I thought we had a great day. The 2 [Austin Cindric] had a really good day. It was fast all day. Solid effort. We definitely got better at the start of stage three. I thought that's where we really got it better. I think a lot of it was just getting some track position, right? You're buried in traffic and you're trying to figure out what does your car need to do well there. And then as you get cleaner air, it's like, all right, now you're adjusting again and trying to play catch up there. It just kind of took some time to do that. But, they stuck with it and made good changes."
