Ryan Blaney’s happy that Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 was a marathon not a sprint. That’s because his No. 12 Ford was terrible at the beginning of the day. However, 4-hours, 21-minutes sand 53-seconds of on track time after the green flag flew, Blaney was pulling back onto pit road with a 4th place result at Texas.

It’s one that he’ll take after where this day began.

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“It was a long night, for sure. It didn’t start out very good at all,” said the Team Penske driver. “We got better and better through the night and throughout the day we were able to win a stage and claw our way back from pretty far back in the pack there that last run to get to fourth.

“I thought our Mustang was probably the best car at the end. We just couldn’t pass anybody. Overall, not a bad night. A pretty wild night. Luckily, we were able to put together a solid race.”

Blaney was saying his car was undriveable in Stage 1. He’d finish 20th in it after going off sequence to pit towards the end of the opening segment. But they never stopped working on it to make it better. He found himself in clean air in the second stage and with clean air and all the changes made over the first half of the race, his car was finally coming to him.

He’d pick up a stage win and 10 much needed points. While it cost him track position to start the final stage in a sense that he needed more gas than others which as a result would cost him more time on pit road compared to others, he still exited 9th.

With salvaging a final chaotic stage, he would finish with his 4th top 5 of his career at Texas and best finish since coming home 3rd at Nashville in late June.