Ryan Blaney achieved his second victory of the season with his big win at Dover International Speedway on Saturday.
When Blaney obtained the lead in the second NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoff race he just dominated the field and never looked back. He simply ran away in the “Use Your Melon, Drive Sober 200” playoff race.
William Byron led all 60 laps and won Stage 1 rather handily while collecting a valuable playoff point. However, on Lap 64 Blaney jumped into the lead off of a caution flag coming out from pit road. Blaney’s domination just started as his No. 22 Team Toyota Penske Ford remained in the lead the rest of the race with the exception of one lap led by Daniel Suarez off of pit road under another caution flag after the completion of Stage 2.
Justin Allgaier powered his way from fourth to second place on Lap 128 of 200 during a restart that began the final stage of the event. Allgaier was able to hold off his hard charging teammate William Byron to the finish line. However, he could not catch Blaney who crossed the checkered flag 4.852 seconds ahead of Allgaier in the No. 7 Chevrolet from JR Motorsports.
The win is Blaney’s sixth XFINITY victory of the Series, it’s his second season win and his first career victory finish at the Monster Mile in Dover. He has now collected 54 points above the cut-off line for the second round of the XFINITY Playoff which makes him a virtual guaranteed lock to advance moving forward.
In the competitive battle to advance and survive the Playoff cut-off, Brendan Gaughan gained ground with his 10th place finish. He will be facing a possible elimination race in Charlotte next week. Meanwhile, Ryan Reed finished in 16th place on Saturday remains just two points ahead of Gaughan.
Behind Blaney, Allgaier and Byron, the fourth place finisher was Daniel Hermic, Brennan Poole fifth, Matt Tift sixth, Daniel Suarez seventh, Cole Custer eighth, Elliott Sadler ninth, and Gaughan rounding off the top ten.
Next week the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoffs moves to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday October 7th starting at 3:00 pm eastern.
