DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Days away from participating in his fifth Daytona 500, Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney appeared as calm as the ocean waves on a bright sunny February day.
Reflecting on his experience at Walt Disney World in nearby Orlando, Fla. on Tuesday, Blaney discussed another opportunity to compete in the “Great American Race” and his second outing as the driver of the No. 12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske.
“This race has been good to us the last couple of years, running second a couple years ago and led a ton of laps last year and it just didn’t work out for us at the end. I think our speedway cars have always been pretty good,” said Blaney. “The Penske group and Wood Brothers group does a great job. It is a combination of cars, having a great spotter – Josh Williams is my spotter and he gets better every single year.
“Having great teammates. All four of us work great together, Paul Menard included. These tracks, more than others, strength in numbers is your friend and we do a great job trying to work together. All the Fords do really.”
Blaney has tasted victory twice at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. In 2017, he finished second to Kurt Busch driving for Wood Bros. Racing. Last year, the son of former Cup driver Dave Blaney led a race-high 118 laps before having to settle for seventh.
On Sun., Feb. 17, he wants to hoist the Harley J. Earl trophy.
“Hopefully we can just finish one off here. If you can make it to the last 20-30 laps, you are going to be in a spot to try to win it. We have been fortunate to make it to the last 20 laps for the last couple years so hopefully, we can do that again and find ourselves in the spot we were in last year, do a couple things different and try to win the race.”
No matter what happens on Sunday, 2019 is the start of a new year for Blaney and his sophomore season as driver of the No. 12 Ford Mustang.
His first year with the Cup powerhouse brought speed, presence and even a surprise victory at the inaugural Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL. But for the 25-year-old, he lacked the consistency he needed to propel his team further into the Playoffs.
“I thought last year went pretty well,” added Blaney. “We had some kind of slip away from us and that stunk, but we had good speed all last year. I thought we should have finished higher in the points than what we did. Having that penalty after Texas was bad. Taking 20 points away there and then blowing up running second at Phoenix and finishing dead last really hurt us. We should have finished fifth or sixth in points and wound up 10th.
“We just needed a little bit more consistency. I thought we had the speed, it is just about being consistent and I think that comes with time and figuring out what you need to run up front, not make rookie mistakes, being smarter than being green and just staying on the gas always. As you get older, get more experience, I think you settle down a little and are a little more methodical about things.”
The consistency train starts on Sunday and even though the Hartford Township, Ohio native has run particularly well at the “World Center of Racing” over the year, Blaney was quick to interject – he hasn’t won yet – and ultimately that’s the grand prize.
“I don’t go into this race more confident than I do at any other race track. You can have amazing runs or not so good runs anywhere,” sounded Blaney. “You go in with the same mentality, try to figure out how to do your best as a driver and how to outsmart people to try to win the race. The last two years have been pretty good to us, but you never know what can happen”
“You can get wrecked on lap 10 and go home. You just try to go in and do your best as a driver, as a team. That is all I really want, my team to do the best job they can and if the best job is that we go win the race, great. If the best job we can do that weekend is go run fifth or 10th, then that is all we can do.”
But the confidence from Blaney should be influentially granted his prior experience at Daytona, right?
For Blaney, it doesn’t make a difference whatsoever.
“I don’t have any more confidence here. I just like speedway racing. I know some guys don’t like it as much as others. I have always enjoyed it. I think it is fun and challenging. Maybe I haven’t wrecked hard enough to not like it. I just like speedway racing in general.
“Obviously, this is a special race. I grew up watching my dad race here and it means a lot to me. I respect the heritage and importance of this race and the history behind it. But really my mindset is the same from here to a race at Richmond.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
