Ryan Blaney Dominates Dover To Win His Second NASCAR XFINITY Series Race Of 2017

DOVER, Del. – Ryan Blaney dominated Stage 2 and Stage 3 in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR XFINITY Series Use Your Melon, Drive Sober 200 at Dover International Speedway to capture the victory with a lead more than five seconds ahead of second place.

Blaney’s victory behind the wheel of the Team Penske No. 22 Fitzgerald Gliders Ford marked his sixth NASCAR XFINITY Series win in 60 starts. He led 136 of 200 laps, leaving the field in the dust as he wheeled his way around the Monster Mile. The win marks Blaney’s second series victory of the season. He won at Charlotte Motor Speedway back in May.

“I feel like we’re really doing well right now,” Blaney said in Victory Lane. “On both sides of it. We obviously would like to be running a little bit better on the Cup side, but I can’t complain. We’ve been pretty good the last month or so. I can’t say enough about this team. I’ve had a handful of starts with them this year, and we’ve, I think run second, I can’t even count how many times, and they deserve to win, and they deserve the best. They did a great job.”

Justin Allgaier went on to capture a second-place finish, earning the highest finishing position of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoff drivers.

Third place went to William Byron, who won Stage 1 in a dominant fashion by leading every lap of the stage after starting on the pole. He showed strength early in the event, but the driver of the JR Motorsports No. 9 AXALTA/Central Aluminum Chevrolet was unable to challenge for the win.

Daniel Hemric finished in fourth, while Brennan Poole claimed the fifth position. Matt Tifft, Cole Custer, Daniel Suarez, Elliott Sadler and Brendan Gaughan rounded out the top-10 in the finishing order.

There were five cautions over the course of the 200-lap event. Three incidents occurred in Stage 1, while the other two cautions were for the end of Stage 1 and the end of Stage 2.

On lap seven, Brandon Jones went for a spin in Turn 4 before Jeff Green piled into his No. 33 Anderson’s Maple Syrup Chevrolet. Green had nowhere to go as he was unable to avoid Jones who had stalled in the middle of Turn 4.

The race restarted on lap 13, but the caution flew just several laps later when Harrison Rhodes’ car went up in smoke, bringing out the caution on lap 19.

The final incident of the race came on lap 26 when Chad Finchum’s car suffered significant damage in a crash off Turn 2.

Justin Allgaier currently leads the points standings over teammate William Byron by just three points.

The NASCAR XFINITY Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway next weekend for the third race of the NASCAR Playoffs. Coverage of the Drive for the Cure 300 begins at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 7, on the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) and the Performance Racing Network (PRN).

Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images

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