Ryan Blaney became one of the biggest stories to come out of Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night for what happened after he climbed out of his race car.
But before his post-race confrontation with Carson Hocevar and the punches that followed, Blaney was making history on the track.
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The Team Penske driver led a race-high 202 laps in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, a dominant performance that pushed him past former Cup Series star Carl Edwards for 40th on NASCAR’s all-time career laps led list.
Blaney also crossed another significant threshold along the way, surpassing 6,000 career laps led in the Cup Series. He became only the 41st driver in NASCAR history to reach that mark.
His night ultimately ended with a wreck rather than a trip to Victory Lane, but that shouldn’t completely overshadow what Blaney accomplished before everything unraveled.
Ryan Blaney passes Carl Edwards on NASCAR’s all-time list
Blaney didn’t simply spend a few laps out front Saturday night.
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For long stretches of the 500-lap race, the No. 12 Ford was the car everyone else was chasing.
Blaney took control of the race and led 202 laps, more than 40% of the entire event. He also won Stage 2 and remained in contention near the front deep into the final stage.
Those laps carried some historical significance.
Blaney entered the night within striking distance of Edwards on NASCAR’s career laps led list. By the time his Bristol run was over, he had officially moved ahead of the former Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush Fenway Racing driver into 40th all time.
He simultaneously cleared 6,000 career laps led, becoming the 41st Cup Series driver to reach a milestone that reflects far more than a single strong night.
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It was another marker of how much Blaney’s Cup career has grown since his early years with Wood Brothers Racing and subsequent move to Team Penske.
Blaney’s dominant Bristol night ends with 43 laps remaining
The numbers also make the way Blaney’s night ended sting even more.
With 43 laps remaining, Blaney had just moved past Hocevar for second when contact between the two sent the No. 12 spinning and into the outside wall.
The damage was too extensive to continue, abruptly ending a night in which Blaney had led more laps than anyone else in the field.
The story then followed both drivers off the racetrack.
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Blaney indicated after leaving the infield care center that he intended to find Hocevar, telling reporters, “Yeah, something’s going to happen.”
It did.
The two confronted each other on pit road after the race, and punches were thrown during a fiery exchange that instantly became one of the defining moments of the Bristol weekend.
That confrontation will understandably command much of the attention surrounding Blaney’s night.
But buried beneath all of the chaos is a piece of NASCAR history.
Before Blaney’s Bristol race ended against the wall and his night ended in a fight, he led 202 laps, passed Carl Edwards on the all-time list and joined an exclusive group of drivers to lead at least 6,000 laps at NASCAR’s highest level.
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