KICKIN’ UP DIRT IN BRISTOL

Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 team brought a strong Menards/Maytag Ford Mustang to Sunday night's Food City Dirt Race as it showed top-five speed from the drop of the green flag. Blaney fought through a loose-handling condition on the entry and exit of the corners in the opening stage, but battled to cross the line fifth in Stage 1. Following a four-tire stop and a round of adjustments at the stage break, Blaney maintained his spot in the top-10 as the track began to change. He kept alternating between the high and low lines throughout Stage 2 while adapting to a slicker track surface, resulting in an eighth-place finish in the stage. Despite falling outside the top-10 in the early laps of the final stage, Blaney started to make his move forward by wrapping the bottom line in the corners and eventually made his way back into the top-five by lap 221. With under 20 laps to go, he picked off the next two in front of him to sit third in the running order before the caution flag flew on lap 235. Blaney chose the bottom lane to restart on the inside of row one as the field took the green flag with eight laps to go, but was spun by the No. 14 in turn one after contact with the left rear. Blaney avoided contact, but the race stayed green the rest of the way resulting in a 23rd-place finish.