Ryan Blaney Captures Stage 2 of Daytona 500

Written by Adrian Beecher
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With just 21 cars left on the lead lap, Ryan Blaney in the No. 12 Menards Ford captured the 2nd stage of the Daytona 500. Things were a bit cleaner in the 2nd stage. However, a big wreck up front midway through the stage took out a slew of contenders.

Here’s the full recap of stage 2 at Daytona!

After a wild finish to stage 1, with Kurt Busch in the No. 41 taking the victory, we got back to green flag racing with the pole sitter Alex Bowman in the No. 88 out in front.

Bowman would relinquish the lead just two laps into the stage on lap 69 to Ryan Blaney in the No. 12. The No. 21 of Paul Menard as well as Bowman in the No. 88 continued to challenge Blaney for the lead over the next 20 laps. Things continued to stay very clean until lap 92 when William Byron in the No 24 cut a tire and slammed into the wall on the backstretch.

The caution then came out for debris on the track, and yellow flag pit stops ensued. Martin Turex Jr. in the No. 78 elected to stay out on the track during the caution, putting him in the race lead.

The field got back to green with just 23 laps to go in the stage with Truex out in front. However, on 24 laps older tires, Truex was only able to hold onto the lead for one lap before Blaney in the No. 12 overtook the lead.

On lap 102 the caution came out again. Battling for 2nd, Chase Elliott in the No. 9 and Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford got into each other. Elliot slammed hard into the outside wall, spinning in a full 360 three times before getting hit by Kasey Kahne in the No. 95 and Danica Patrick in the No. 7 GoDaddy Chevrolet. Keselowski in the No. 2 came back up the track and collected Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 Jimmie Johns Ford. Truex Jr. in the No. 78 and David Ragen in the No. 38 Speedco Ford were involved as well collecting damage.

The field would get back to green with just 12 laps left in the stage with Blaney still out front in the No. 12. Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 would be sent to the garage just a lap back into the garage as his damage on his car was deemed unsafe by NASCAR due to missing metal on his driver-side door, thus ending his day.

Then with eight laps left in the stage, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had trouble with overheating and had to come into the pits for repairs, costing him two lap’s on the leaders.

As the field came to the green-white-checkered, to end stage 2, it was the No. 12 of Ryan Blaney in the front of the pack with Paul Menard in the No. 21 in a close 2nd.

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