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RACE RUNDOWN
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 MENARDS/RICHMOND FORD MUSTANG
START: 5TH
STAGE 1: 7TH
STAGE 2: 8TH
FINISH: 5TH
POINTS: 6TH
Ryan Blaney raced his way to a fifth-place finish Sunday afternoon at Bristol, marking his third top-five result of the season. After firing off from fifth, Blaney maintained top-10 pace in the opening 125-lap stage that stayed green for its entirety as the No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford crossed the line seventh in Stage 1. An early caution in Stage 2 brought Blaney to pit road as he was the first of the leaders to opt for service under yellow in order to fight to the front on fresh tires for the ensuing run. Blaney ultimately worked his way up to eighth in the running order by the end of Stage 2. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler made the call for Blaney to run long during the final stage, allowing him to take over the lead on lap 391 in the middle of the green flag pit cycle. Blaney went on to lead the next 48 laps and was the only car on the lead lap with 72 to go before Hassler called him to pit road with 61 laps remaining. Following the four tire stop under green, Blaney rejoined the field scored ninth in the running order and ultimately made his way to fifth with six laps to go for his third-career top-five at Bristol.
Blaney's Thoughts
"It was just kind of a learning thing all day. The first run of the race nobody really knew what the tires were going to do and everyone kind of just rode around there a little bit and we finally got going and we went so long. Then it was like, 'Alright, we can go a little bit harder.' The track widened out, which was good. I honestly don't know if I really anticipated that with the track getting wide and really not having tire problems. I'm glad that's the way it was. I think it put on a pretty decent race. There were a lot of comers and goers, except for the lead, I guess, but it was a pretty fun day and a really good finish. We kind of took a chance of running really long there, seeing if we'd get a caution and then we finally bailed and had to make all the ground up and got back to fifth. Overall, it was a solid weekend."
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