TALLADEGA, Ala.: The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney hasn’t exactly had the perfect opening four races of the Playoffs, but the defending winner of the YellaWood 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway is pleased with the performance of his No. 12 Team Penske team despite the minor bumps in the road.
The last six weeks have been full of ebbs and flows for the popular NASCAR driver, and it started before the green flag waved on the 10-race Playoff run that began last month in Atlanta (GA). Motor Speedway.
Dubbed as one of the favorites to win in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in late August, Blaney was knocked out of competition in the opening laps of the race after Martin Truex Jr. lost control of his race car and collected Blaney in the process, just two laps into the race.
The downfall of Blaney’s 37th-place finish was not being able to acquire any stage or Playoff points that would allow him to pad his Playoff cushion.
Finishing third in the opening race at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway set a strong tone for the defending Cup Series championship team, but the following weekend at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International quickly shifted the emotions after being collected in a Lap 1 crash that left Blaney with zero laps complete in the Finger Lakes of New York.
Despite qualifying 22nd in the final race of the Round of 16 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Blaney recovered during the race to finish sixth and advance to the Round of 12, which includes Kansas Speedway this weekend at Talladega and the cut-off race at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL.
Last weekend at Kansas Speedway, Blaney opened up the second round of the Cup Playoffs with a solid fourth-place finish and sitting a comfortable second in the Playoff standings, 28 above the cutline with two races to go.
Back at the 2.66-mile superspeedway and ready to record his third Cup Series win of the season, Blaney is satisfied with his team’s performance and believes his team can keep the momentum up and contend for the Championship 4 for the second consecutive season.
“I think we’ve had some success here as a group for a long time and there are a number of factors that go into it,” Blaney said Saturday morning at Talladega. “I don’t know, I think we see these races as big opportunities for us. We’ve come to look forward to these events. I know some people come out and say, ‘We don’t look forward to these events.’
“That’s not a good mindset to have, so I think how do we maximize the weekend, whether it’s here or Daytona or Atlanta. How do we work together as a team between Joey, Austin and myself and Harrison? How do we try to support each other and try to do the best we can for our groups?
“I feel like we do a better job at teamwork here than anybody else. I feel like we constantly look for each other. We constantly have each other’s backs, and that’s what you need here. That’s what we’ve done to be successful at these racetracks.”
Blaney said his Team Penske organization’s overall positive attitude toward superspeedway racing has helped with this mindset, even if the finishes don’t always turn out as well as they had hoped.
“We don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, Talladega.’ You know that things aren’t fully in your control and that’s just a given, and you just put that out of the way and say, ‘Hey, how do we execute this race as good as we can,’ and understand that if things do happen to us that isn’t in our control, well, that’s just the way it is,” he said.
“It stinks, but it’s just not anything you can really stew over, so I think our group has a really good mindset when it comes to these places – good or bad – and you never know what the outcome is gonna be.”
Not only have positive vibes been an asset to Blaney and his team, but the 12-time Cup winner insists that his team is better at this point of the season than his championship run last year.
“I go into every weekend, our whole group goes into every weekend wanting to win, obviously, and expecting to win. I think our group is capable of that and I think we’ve done a great job up to this point. I think we as a company and as the 12 team are way stronger than what we were at this point last year,” added Blaney.
“Our cars are faster. We’re gelling as a team better. We don’t come to these places expecting to win; we just come and try to do our job the best we can do our job. Do you execute well on pit road? Do you try to make more good decisions than bad decisions out there? You’re obviously going to have some moves that don’t work for you, and that’s just the way it is, but you just have confidence going to these places, and it’s the same every week.”
As Blaney has already experienced during the first four races of the Playoffs, not every race is going to be flawless, but he approaches every race with the best mentality and outlook while hoping for the best on race day.
“I don’t go to a certain place looking forward to it more than others,” sounded Blaney. “I look forward to every weekend and just trying to see what we can bring to the track and how we can utilize our efforts and skills the best that we can, and that’s really all I ask for. Kind of a big thing on our team is do your job to the best of your ability and if you do the best to your ability, you can at least hold your head high and whatever happens, happens.
“If you win, great. If not, you did the best job you could, and I think that’s just something we’ve thought about through the last year and a half, two years, and I think everyone is just kind of taking that in a good way – like I want to give all of myself on this weekend and this day and see what happens to it.”
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