BLANEY’S BRISTOL LEAD ENDS IN LATE-RACE INCIDENT

Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Wabash Ford Dark Horse Mustang team led a race-high 202 laps in Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway yet will leave with a 33rd-place finish following a late-race incident with Carson Hocevar. Blaney started the race from the 29th position after Friday's qualifying session was rained out, but crew chief Jonathan Hassler began working his strategy for gain track position early at the Lap 40 competition caution as he kept Blaney on track to restart fourth. Hassler would call Blaney to pit lane on Lap 97 for four tires and fuel, setting the Wabash crew up for a sixth-place finish in the first stage. Blaney restarted from the top spot when the second stage began, the same position in which he would finish at the end of the stage to continue to rack up valuable points. With all of the other lead lap cars electing pit at the end of the stage, Blaney was able to hold the top spot on pit lane with all cars having reset their strategy for the final stage. After briefly losing the lead to Ty Gibbs on Lap 326, Blaney reclaimed the lead during the pit cycle before being called to pit lane on Lap 396. Unfortunately, a yellow flag came out after Blaney had passed the pit lane commitment line but before he actually entered pit lane and Blaney made a swift move back on the racing surface. Since he had committed to pit lane, he was forced to restart at the end of the lead lap cars after eventually making his pit stop. Blaney made his third pit stop of the day on Lap 400 and after restarting in the ninth position, he was able to maneuver his way to second in the running order. Blaney restarted fourth on Lap 50 following another caution period and on Lap 457 Hocevar made contact with the rear bumper of the No. 12 machine, resulting in significant damage that was deemed to much to continue. The finish drops Blaney to sixth in the standings, 52 points behind the leader.