By:
Scott Tilley
Ryan Blaney dominated the NASCAR Xfinity My Bariatric Solutions 300 for his first win ever at Texas Motor Speedway and also for the 2018 season. It was the third win in a row for Team Penske who had won at Phoenix Raceway with Brad Keselowski and at Fontana with Joey Logano the previous two races.
You never want to be the person who breaks the streak of wins, especially when a car's been so fast,
Blaney said. There was that reminder in the back of my head to try to get this one.
It was a dominating day for Blaney, and his Roush-Yayes powered Ford, who won just about everything that was available for him to win as a driver. He started the day by winning the pole in 28.439 seconds, 189.880 mph. He then won the first stage of the race, and went onto win the race.
Because Blaney is a full time Monster Energy Cup driver, he is not eligible for any of the points from his day; but the car, owned by Team Penske, was able to profit handsomely from Blaney's dominance as Penske continues to lead the owners points race.
Second place went to Xfinity rookie Christopher Bell. Bell looked more like a race veteran than a rookie new to the Xfinitity series. He started the day in the 18th position because of a conservative qualifying run on a slick and wet track. He then patiently marched his way through the field to lead the race two separate times for 10 laps, but a pit road penalty put him at the tail end on the longest line. He was, however, able to fight his way back through the field for a second place finish.
When asked whether he thought that if he had not received the pit road penalty the race have turned out differently, he said, I don't know. There's been a lot of people that have run second to the 22 here recently, so they obviously have something figured out ... it doesn't matter who's driving that thing, it goes really fast.
For his efforts, Bell won the Mobil 1 Driver of the Race and also the Sunoco Rookie of the Race. This finish was his fourth top 10 finish for the 2018 season. The season points for the championship got a little tighter with Bell's good points day. He was able to gain on both Tyler Reddick who finished outside the top 20 and Elliott Sadler who finished 8th with no stage points.
The Xfinity series heads off to Bristol next week where the top 4 finishers from this race will have a chance to race for an additional $100,000. This will also be a race in which Monster Cup drivers are not allowed to participate.
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Texas Motor Speedway
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