Ryan Blaney (@RyanBlaney22), driver of the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150, scored a fifth place finish in the Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Saturday afternoon at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Blaney grabbed his 14th top five of the season in the 200 lap race. He is second in the NCWTS championship standings, 18 points behind the leader.
Blaney started fifth and quickly worked his way to the front, grabbing the lead on lap 18, holding the top spot through lap 34. Ryan was running eighth when he made his first scheduled pit stop during the fifth caution for four tires and adjustments on lap 104. Blaney restarted 17th in line when the race went green on lap 111 – mainly due to differing pit strategies employed by his competition.
Blaney narrowly avoided major trouble when he was involved in an accident that brought out the eighth caution of the race on lap 138. He tried to avoid the spinning truck of John H. Nemechek off Turn 2 and was hit on the right side. Ryan pitted under caution on lap 140 for tires and a quick check of the damage and restarted outside the top 20 when the race went green on lap 150.
From that point Blaney used his fresher tires to his advantage, steadily working his way through the heavy traffic. He moved inside the top 10 on lap 178 and passed his teammate Tyler Reddick to pick off seventh place on lap 195. On the final lap, he moved past Johnny Sauter to claim fifth.
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