SPARTA, Ky. – After a tough three-race stretch in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition, Ryan Blaney rebounded Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway with a runner-up performance in the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart.
Blaney called the night “a positive” after finishing second to eventual race winner Martin Truex Jr.
While Blaney thought he might have a shot a Truex at the start of a run, Truex’s Toyota proved to be too much to conquer over the long haul – forcing Blaney to settle for his best finish of the season.
“It’s not a win. It’s a positive, that’s for sure,” said Blaney. “I hate it. I thought we were in a good spot there restarting fourth and Martin struggled a little bit the first couple laps and I thought I could get by him, but just couldn’t quite get a run on him.
“His car came in and mine kind of faded a little bit and he won the race. That stunk. I thought we had a shot at it tonight, but I’m really proud of the gains we made all race though, to be honest with you. I didn’t think we were a second-place car at the beginning of the race, and we got a lot better throughout the night so Jeremy Bullins and everybody did a great job.
“I can’t thank DEX Imaging and Ford and Menards enough for what they do. You said it, after the last few weeks we’ve had this is a very good positive for us. Hopefully, we can keep it going in the right direction.”
Early in the race, Blaney didn’t believe he was a second-place car, but good adjustments from crew chief Jeremy Bullins kept Blaney in contention for his second career Cup win.
“We made good gains all night,” added Blaney. “Obviously at the start of the day, I thought we were okay. I didn’t think we were a second place car, and we made our car a lot better throughout the night. I thought we were in a good spot there the last restart, starting fourth, and Martin pinned on the bottom, and couldn’t quite get up next to him to get by him, and that was kind of the race.
“I thought I had a small shot there. His car took a little bit to come in, and I couldn’t really get close to him to mess him up or get him loose. I was so loose into 3, and that’s kind of where you have to make your move. And then he ended up pulling away. But proud of the effort. We needed a run like that after the last few weeks that we’ve had.
“Back to where this team deserves to run, which is good, and I think our company as a whole is making small gains. Granted, I think we still have a good chunk to cover, but small gains are always nice, so hopefully, we can keep making those.”
As the on-track battle heats up as the start of the Cup Series Playoffs looms, Blaney believes his team is slowly closing the gap of the front-runners of Truex, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer who have dominated the headlines in 2018.
“I hope so,” offered Blaney when asked if his Team Penske team is closing the gap.
“That’s really all you can hope for, but you never know. The 78, he kind of dominated the night. They had a really great race car and they did a good job. They’ve done that all year. We’ve just got to keep working hard like we all have been at Team Penske and just keep trying to close that gap until we dominate races and we lead a bunch of laps.
“Hopefully we get there soon.”
Get there soon also means getting to Victory Lane, something that Blaney feels his No. 12 team has been able to do all year – just haven’t had the luck or circumstances to claim his first win as a Team Penske protégé.
“I mean, I think we’ve been poised to do it all year to be honest with you,” Blaney sounded. “I think we have a great team over at the 12 group that work great together, and we’ve had a shot to win a couple of races and just haven’t really played out for us. But I’m pretty confident every weekend. I think we have a group to do it.
We’ve got to be great, and I think we’re on the verge of that. It’s just a matter of keep on working hard and trying to find little things here and there to put us in that category.
“But we just go try to win every single race. I don’t really think of the rookie drivers versus the veteran guys. Everyone is a competitor in this sport, and you ask anybody, they look at it the same way”
Saturday night was Blaney’s return to the top-10 since Michigan International Speedway in June and his first top-five result since a fifth at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01
