Blaney overcomes penalty to claim Bristol win

Ryan Blaney made two charges to the front to win Wednesday night’s UNOH 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

The second – and far more difficult – charge was not on purpose.

While leading early in the race, Blaney was black-flagged for jumping a restart following a caution and eventually fell a lap down. After a 45-minute rain delay, Blaney, back on the lead lap, powered up to second and was suddenly presented a second chance to take the lead when Ty Dillon wrecked and brought out a caution flag with four laps remaining.

The race went into a two-lap overtime and then-leader Matt Crafton never got going on the restart. Blaney quickly took the lead and held off Kyle Busch to claim his first series win of the season.

“We were both spinning our tires on the final restart,” Blaney said in Victory Lane. “We may have made a little bit of contact.

“Thanks to all the fans for sticking around. I was really glad we went back racing (after the rain).”

Blaney said he may have gone “a tiny early” on the restart where he was black-flagged but thought the penalty didn’t fit the crime.

“I would have liked to have seen a warning, obviously, but luckily we were able to overcome it well,” he said.

Blaney is running all three races at Bristol this weekend. He’s driving for Team Penske in Friday night’s Xfinity Series race and for the Wood Brothers in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race.

Wednesday night’s race was a rarity for Busch – he struggled to stay in contention for the race win. He seemed to come to life on the final restart.

“I saw the No. 54 pass four trucks make a show,” he said. “I got into (Turn 1) and saw an opening on the outside. I probably bunched everybody up because I was three-wide, but what are you going to do? It was green-white-checkered, you go for it, right?”

John Hunter Nemechek finished third, Daniel Hemric, was fourth and Brandon Jones was fifth. Tyler Reddick, who finished eighth, continues to lead the series standings and holds a six-point advantage over Crafton.