Sunday wasn’t a bad day for Ryan Blaney, but it could have been better – a lot better, which the Wood Brothers Racing driver will try not to let sting going into the off weekend.

“It’s nice to win a couple segments, but I want to lead the last lap,” Blaney said. “That’s the lap I care about, but I thought we made a gain today as a team.”

Blaney ultimately finished 12th in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway after dominating the race. He led a total of 148 laps, all of which came in the first two stages and 170 laps of the race.

However, the third stage was a tougher battle. It started when the No. 21 team chose to go for the win in the second stage while half of the field came down pit road during a caution inside the final 10 laps. When the stage ended, Blaney came in to pit, while the teams who had already done so stayed out and took the track position.

Blaney did make it back into the top 10, by the time final pit stops rolled around on lap 310 of 334. But when he slid through his pit stall, Blaney again found himself mired in traffic.

“We deserved to finish third at worst,” Blaney said. “Our car at its worst point was a third-place car. You definitely think about that and are discouraged about that. But at the same time, you’ve got to look at the positives, and I think this the most positive race we’ve ever had as a team, as a whole organization.

“This whole weekend has been pretty decent, and like I said, I thought we made big gains overnight of changing our racecar where it needed to be to run up front, but I definitely think this is a big confidence boost for everybody, especially after last week at Martinsville, how it ended up (finishing 25th). I think this is a big help for everybody. You can’t hold your head down about this one, I don’t think.”

And others are taking notice of the Wood Brothers’ recent surge.

A @woodbrothers21 car is extremely competitive again in @NASCAR. If you appreciate the history, that is an incredible thing.

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) April 9, 2017

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By winning the first two stages, Blaney earned two points toward the playoffs. He sits sixth in points after the first seven races.

Entering Sunday, Blaney had led just 33 laps in his 60-race career, and just two this season. By spending over 100 laps out front in Texas, Blaney became the first Wood Brothers driver to accomplish that in a race since Neil Bonnett led 108 laps at Rockingham in October 1982.

“We didn’t finish where we wanted to by a long shot, but the positives you look at was how good our car was and how our adjustments were today,” Blaney said. “I thought our adjustments were really strong throughout the race. The track changed a little bit, so we were able to stay on top of that while we were out front.

“Yeah, it’s definitely the most laps we’ve led. It’s nice to start up front. It’s a big product of starting up front, especially here at this racetrack the way it is now. But like I said, I don’t care if we lead just one lap as long as it’s the last one. We can lead 300 something. But we just weren’t in position to have the right lap led today.”