BLANEY FIGHTS BACK TO GET IN THE TOP-10 BEFORE LATE RACE CAUTION

Ryan Blaney battled his way back to an 11th-place finish Sunday night at Richmond Raceway in the Cup Series' second trip to the Virgina short track. After starting 11th, Blaney settled into 12th in the running order for a majority of the opening stage as the BODYARMOR Sport Water Ford experienced a tight-handling condition in the center of the corners. Blaney ultimately settled for a 14th-place finish in the first 70-lap stage before crew chief Jonathan Hassler dialed in a round of adjustments during the team's four tire stop under caution. The entirety of Stage 2 saw green flag racing as teams were forced to make a pair of scheduled green flag stops. After cycling to third in the running order at the start of the first round of pit stops, Blaney was called to pit road on lap 131 for four tires and a round of adjustments before his final stop of the stage came on lap 177 for the same service. Blaney managed to work his way back to 14th by the end of the second stage as he reported improvement in turn in the center of the corner despite being tight at the start of each run. The 12 team began the final stage on the softer option tire the saw Blaney charge into the top-10 shortly after the restart. Blaney climbed the leaderboard to third before his scheduled green flag service on lap 281, but a slow stop mired the No. 12 back to 17th in the running order and fighting to get back on the lead lap. The 12 team altered their strategy for the final green flag cycle of the night, opting to run long before pitting for its last set of option tires on lap 357 to make ground on the leaders with the harder prime tire. Blaney made his way through the field in the closing laps to get back inside the top-10 with 12 to go before the caution came out with two laps to go, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. Blaney pitted for four prime tires prior to the final restart and ultimately took the checkered flag 11th.