WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.: Fresh off a new agreement to remain with Team Penske for the foreseeable future, Ryan Blaney could not dodge the attention of the looming NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Saturday morning at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
With just two races remaining in the regular this season, Sunday at Watkins Glen and next Saturday night at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Blaney despite sitting second overall in the Cup Series championship standings remains winless aboard his No. 12 Ford Mustang.
And it hasn’t been for the lack of effort or speed. The dots just haven’t connected when it mattered most that would propel him to his eighth career Cup win and undoubtedly a secured seed in the 10-race Playoff match.
Still with the drama that surrounds Blaney and his Jonathan Hassler-led team, Blaney isn’t losing sleep or stressing knowing he can’t change what is to happen. Instead, he is trying to remain positive and have an open mind.
“You can’t stress yourself out about it. It is either going to happen or it isn’t, whether you make the playoffs or not,” Blaney said Saturday. “There are only two choices, two options. You can’t stress out about the negatives if you don’t make it. If you stress yourself out about that then your mind is set on that you aren’t going to make it.
“You just have to have an open mind about anything can happen and you just have to do your best. I haven’t lost any sleep and haven’t really worried about it and I think the same goes for all the guys on our team.
“They have been really even-keeled about it and they understand that we just have to do our best and this team is fast enough to go do it and make it. We just have to control what we can control which is good. I enjoy how everyone’s mindset is the same. I think that is how it should be.”
Approaching the next two weekends, Blaney is sticking to the mindset that he carried earlier in the year in hopes that he’ll land on the positive side—should he not deliver his first win since the regular season finale last August at Daytona.
“Honestly it is the same mindset as the second or third race of the year. It is just the time of year as to why it gets talked about more, obviously. You always want to win races and do well in stages and beat everybody else. There is really no way to approach it any differently.
“You just try to do the best you can and maximize your day. That is all we can do. We can’t control anyone else’s day. I can’t control Martin’s (Truex Jr.) day, he can’t control mine or anyone else in the field. You just focus on yourself the best you can and go out and try to do what you normally would do and try to figure out a way to win the race and do well.
“At the end of the day, if we do our job to the best of our abilities, if it works out great and if it doesn’t then that is just the way it falls. The biggest thing we can do is just worry about our group.”
If winning may not be in the cards on Sunday, the opportunity to maximize on stage points definitely is and Blaney believes his team will capitalize on that opportunity.
“The road courses are a big opportunity to get stage points,” he explained. “I thought we played it really well at Indy of kind of maximizing that day of being able to get a lot of stage points and find ourselves up toward the front of the field towards the end of the race. You never know how it is going to play out here compared to Indy.
“You never know what people will do with strategy and pitting. You never know what other teams are thinking. This is a great place to do it. I look back at Road America and we were really bad, really far off. But we decided during that race that since we were far off and not going anywhere from where we qualified that we would stay out in stages and ended up winning a stage and clawed our way back to finish 11th by the end of the race. We made a decent day out of it. We didn’t have a car that could win, we didn’t think.
“At Indy, I think we had a car that could win the race and we played it really well. A lot of that, like I said, is how you get going and what speed is in your car and making those decisions on the fly. But yeah, stage points are obviously really important and we have done a good job at getting those throughout the year to keep us in a decent position but a lot of it is making a decision in the moment. You have a plan but sometimes that plan doesn’t really work out and you have to improvise.”
Blaney realizes that despite his stellar season where he carries an average finish of 13.2 entering Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen, he could not make the Playoffs for the first time since 2016, but the 28-year-old driver said he’ll think about it later – if it indeed comes to that.
“Yeah, obviously you will be very disappointed if you don’t make it but I haven’t really thought about that honestly,” explained Blaney. “You don’t want to think about not making it when you are focused on that goal. It would be unfortunate but hopefully, that doesn’t happen. We will cross that bridge if it does come.”
Should Blaney fail to make the Playoff grid, it’s not ideal but the High Point, N.C. native will have no choice but to focus forward and begin preparing for 2023 with a team he calls family and will remain family for years and years to come.
“It is great to announce that and awesome to continue with Penske,” sounded Blaney. “They have been amazing to me over the last 10 years. I got talking to RP (Roger Penske) about how it has been 10 years since I first walked in the door in the early fall of 2012.
“Time flies, that is for sure. It has been a really cool 10 years and I am looking forward to continue that on for a long time. It is great to get that out there, obviously the silly season side of it, it is nice to not be in those talks and have a home because they have been like family to me and I look forward to carrying on with them.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
