Ryan Blaney takes stage 2 after leading 148 laps at Texas

Written by Ryan Musich

Coming out of the caution, Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. would battle for lead position. Blaney would win that battle, as he would pull away on the back straight away. Truex would get loose on turn 2, and Jimmie Johnson =, Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. would take advantage of that, as Johnson would enter into 2nd place, and Truex Jr. would fall all the way back to 9rd place. On lap 113, Truex Jr. would overtake Harvick for 2nd place.

Blaney would hold a pretty convincing lead the first 32 laps of stage two, as he would be 3 seconds ahead of 2nd place driver Martin Truex Jr. In lap 121 the first caution flag of stage 2 would come out for debris on the home stretch. Martin Truex Jr. would be able to almost overtake Ryan Blaney, but unfortunately for Truex Jr. Blaney would quickly shut the door on his pass attempt. Jimmie Johnson would make his best progress in stage two, as Johnson started in 11th place to start the 2nd stage. Johnson would jump all the way up to 2nd place.
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Though Kevin Harvick was able to take 2nd place early in the stage, he would end up falling to 7th place. Harvick would not make it past 7th place the rest of the second stage. Jimmie Johnson would continuously close the gap between Johnson and Blaney. In lap 164, another caution would come out as more debris would be left on the racetrack. In lap 167, the race would get back underway and there would be a shootout to see who would win the 2nd stage. And the winner of stage two would be Ryan Blaney. Blaney would pick 10 points plus 1 playoff point as well.