Ryan Blaney (@RyanBlaney22), driver of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150, collected a 12th place finish in the Lucas Oil 225 Saturday night at Chicagoland (Ill.) Speedway. He remains third in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings, and is now 16 points behind the leader.
Blaney started fifth and remained among the top five for all but the closing stages of the race. He led the race three times for six laps and was poised to score a top five finish or perhaps challenge for the win.
Those hopes began to unravel when the third and final caution of the race waved on lap 113. Just three laps earlier Blaney had made his final pit stop for four tires and fuel under green and the timing of the yellow pinned him a lap down. Ryan took the wave around to get back on to the lead lap during the caution and lined up ninth for the restart. Shortly after the green flag waved, Blaney struggled to come up to speed, and it soon became clear that his engine was down a cylinder. Despite the mechanical gremlins, Ryan was able to post a 12th place finish and lost just three points to the championship leader.
