NASCAR: Ryan Blaney’s win another for Cup Series drivers in Xfinity Series

By Sean Anderson | Apr 7, 2018

FORT WORTH, TX - APRIL 07: Ryan Blaney, driver of the #22 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series My Bariatric Solutions 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 7, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Ryan Blaney’s win at Texas Motor Speedway is yet another win for full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers in the Xfinity Series.

Ryan Blaney led the NASCAR Xfinity Series field to green flag alongside Ryan Truex in the 2018 My Bariatric Solutions 300 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Track temperatures played a factor early in the race, with a caution coming out for Chad Finchum, who spun on lap two.

Blaney led the field back to green on lap five. This time, there were four laps under green before a caution flag came out. The caution came out for Jamie McMurray, who spun off of turn four on lap nine.

Blaney pulled away from the field on the restart on lap 14. Once again, a caution came out for a spin. Vinnie Miller spun off of turn two and his race was ended. When the race went back to green, no cautions came out for the remainder of the stage. This led to Ryan Blaney leading all the laps in his stage one victory.

Once the second stage started, Ryan Blaney picked up where he left off in stage one. He led until there were 21 laps remaining in stage two, when Spencer Gallagher brought out the fifth caution of the race.

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With 15 laps left in stage two, Blaney led going into turn one. Unfortunately for Blaney, he got loose in the middle of turn two and lost the lead to Christopher Bell. Bell had the lead until Finchum crashed again, bringing out another caution flag. While many of the leaders pitted, Brandon Jones stayed out and got the race lead. The race restarted with one lap left in stage two, and Jones held off the field and earned his first career stage win.

Since Jones had to pit, he had to start in the middle of the pack as well. When the final stage began, Jones barely made it a lap before he spun off of turn four and brought out another caution flag. Daniel Hemric got the lead thanks to Jones pitting. Hemric led at the restart and held the lead until there were 68 laps remaining. Blaney got around him and drove away from him.

With about 63 laps remaining, drivers began making their final pit stops of the race under green. Blaney stayed out until there were 57 laps to go, but he cycled back to the lead with 46 laps to go. Once he returned to the lead, he led the remaining 45 laps to earn his seventh career Xfinity series race.

His win marks the fifth Xfinity Series race so far this season that a full-time Cup Series driver has won. In fact, full-time Cup Series drivers have now each of the last five Xfinity Series race, and a different Cup Series driver has won each of those races.

The only race of the 2018 Xfinity Series season that has not been won by a full-time Cup Series driver was at Daytona nearly two months ago when Tyler Reddick took the win for JR Motorsports. Since then, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and now Blaney have won in the Xfinity Series.

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The next race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 next Saturday at 1:00 pm. It is set to be broadcast live from Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee on Fox Sports 1. Will a full-time Cup Series driver win the sixth consecutive Xfinity Series race?

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