By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
The Blue Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 was a wild back and forth race for Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney.
The driver of the No. 12 Menards / Cardell Cabinetry Ford Mustang broke into the top-10 in the caution-free second stage. Blaney finished the second stage at Martinsville Speedway runner-up to seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson.
The Penske No. 12 briefly took the lead in stage three before another caution waved. During the ensuing pit stop, Blaney’s pit crew made two mistakes. The tire changer dropped the air gun running from the right side to the left. The more costly mistake was a crew member jumping over the wall too soon, sending Blaney to the tail end of the field for the restart. He lined up behind both lead lap cars and those one or more laps down.
Blaney spent the final 172 laps clawing his way back up through the field. At one point he and his friend, Bubba Wallace moved through the traffic together. Blaney made it back up to second, but was a distant four seconds behind Martin Truex Jr. The fifth-year driver took the checkered flag in second.
“A big shout-out to Todd Gordon (crew chief) and everybody on this 12 team because we were awful at the start of the race and went a lap down in the first 60 laps,” explained Blaney. “That’s bad. Luckily, we got the car a lot better. Even the first stop and I got the lucky dog and really drove up through there and ran second the second stage.
“Then we had a penalty on pit road, which sent us back again, so I was happy we were able to come back up through second. I would have loved to restart towards the front with Martin to see, if I didn’t have to pass all those cars, I could have raced with him. He was pretty good. I’m proud of this Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang, just a couple solid runs here we’ve got to string together. We just need to break through. Hopefully, we can do that soon.”
Blaney’s day started off at the front after he drew the pole position for the race. However in the first 60 laps, the Ford Performance driver was one of many drivers, including Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin that uncharacteristically fell a lap down. Blaney was trapped a lap down until the next caution when Timmy Hill stalled on pit road.
The second-place finish is the fifth top-five for Blaney this season and 32nd of his career. The top-five moved the High Point, N.C. native up from seventh to sixth in the points standings. The Penske driver is 91-points behind points leader Kevin Harvick and 107-points ahead of the cutoff for the playoffs, held by William Byron.
The next race for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, June 14.