Blaney Fights From The Rear For Dover Top 10

Ryan Blaney in action at Dover Motor Speedway. (Wyatt Tinsley/Motorsports Hotspot photo)

DOVER, Del. – A quiet and steady day is never a bad thing when a driver doesn’t necessarily have race-winning speed. For Ryan Blaney, that was the case at Dover Motor Speedway.

Blaney finished eighth on Sunday for his ninth top 10 of the season and just his second in five weeks since coming home third at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway in June.

“It was a fun day. I thought on long runs we were really good,” said Blaney. “I would have personally liked to have seen it go to the end before the rain caution came out because we had a really good long run car and I thought I might have been able to get up inside the top five to fifth.”

Due to weather forcing practice and qualifying to be cancelled, Blaney started the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 from the rear of the field in 31st place. This was due to his recent rough stretch, with DNF’s at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta and most recently at California’s Sonoma Raceway.

It marked his worst starting position to start a race since Martinsville back in April.

Entering Dover, Blaney led the NASCAR Cup Series in DNFs, with seven total through 21 races. In roughly a third of the regular season so far, the 2023 Cup Series champion has not finished due to car troubles or crashes.

However, Blaney overcame the bad track position and drove into the top 15 by the end of stage one. Throughout stage two, Blaney stayed within the top 10, getting up to ninth in the stage and finishing there to earn two points.

Even after a late rain delay, Blaney remained competitive, hanging around the front to collect 31 points overall on the day. On the final restart in overtime he pitted for tires, and attempted to climb further up in the field before settling for eighth.

“We came in and got two tires, and I didn’t pick a good lane on the restart and gave a lot of track position away,” said Blaney. “But, overall, it was a good day from where we started. I thought it put a decent amount of rubber on the racetrack, but I don’t know if that’s the temps or the tire. I thought we were able to move around a little bit more than before.”

Blaney captured his third top 10 at Dover since 2023. It was also his fifth top 10 effort at the ‘Monster Mile’ overall since 2016.

The Hartford, Ohio, native will look to extend his top 10 streak when the Cup Series heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Blaney has two top 10s on the Indy oval and finished third in the crown jewel Brickyard 400 in 2024.

With five weeks left until the playoffs, Blaney hopes to continue to build momentum ahead of the postseason and his pursuit of a second Cup Series championship.

Coverage of the 29th Brickyard 400 presented by PPG from Indianapolis begins Sunday, July 27 at 2 p.m. ET on TNT, the IMS Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.