September 15, 2025

Team Penske's Ryan Blaney needed to have a clean day in order to advance to the next round of the playoffs, and that is exactly what he got during the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Blaney began the race from the second position and ran inside the top five for most of the first stage outside of pit stop sequences. He battled with Ty Gibbs throughout the stage and eventually edged him out for the stage one victory to score 10 playoff points. The second stage went much like the first for Blaney as he ran in the top five outside of pit stops. He even clashed with Gibbs again for the stage win at the end of stage two, but this time fell short and settled for second, earning more stage points. In the final stage, Blaney continued to run well despite many pit stops that occurred throughout the stage. Blaney did experience a slight pit road setback before the final restart, where his team needed extra time to tighten his left front tire, but that did not change how fast he would be on the final run to the checkered flag. Blaney went from the back half of the top 10 to finishing in fourth, tying his best career finish at Bristol and advancing to the Round of 12 in the playoffs at the same time.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com