DARLINGTON, SC.: Blaney enters the 10-race NASCAR Cup Series Playoff riding a two-race winning streak. The driver of the No. 12 Ford triumphed three times in the regular season, the first time he had ever won more than once in a single Cup campaign.
The way Blaney sees it, the recent success is inextricably interwoven with his more active leadership role within the team. Spurring his professional growth was Brad Keselowski’s announcement that he would leave Team Penske after 12 seasons to take an owner/driver role at Roush Fenway Racing.
“I wouldn’t say I needed him to leave in order to take that role,” Blaney said Tuesday during a Zoom conference on Playoff Media Day. “I wanted to take a role and join Joey (Logano) and Brad in what they do so well, and that’s being great leaders. It was something I’ve been working on.
“It’s just something that I think you do as you grow, and you gain experience, and you gain races under your belt, and you realize what it takes to do better. That’s kind of what I realized—it’s time to really step up and be a bigger part of being a leader.”
Logano has noticed the change in his teammate, and it bodes well for the No. 12 team approaching the Playoff opener, Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (6 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I’ve seen Blaney grow a lot,” Logano said. “The joke was, when he first started, everyone called him YRB, Young Ryan Blaney. Now I think he’s just Ryan Blaney, because he’s grown up over the last few years right in front of my eyes.
“As his teammate, seeing him become more competitive, more (assertive) at our meetings, becoming a true teammate to where we can work together on the race track as much as we do off the race track… I see Blaney growing so much, and we’ve seen, obviously, the last couple of weeks what he’s been able to put together.”
Blaney credits crew chief Todd Gordon with helping him discover a championship mind-set. Seeing the success of his teammates also was a motivating factor.
“Each of my other years, I’ve won just one race, and Brad and Joey—they’re both great race car drivers, and they’ve won multiple ones. You get in a mind-set of ‘Man, I want to be part of that group.’ When your teammates are winning more than you year after year, you kind of can get down on yourself.”
Entering the Playoff, Blaney leads the team in victories. Keselowski and Logano start the postseason with one win each.
“That’s all just self-confidence to me,” Blaney said of his recent success. “Like I said before, I’m not the most confident person out there in general, so that side is just something I’m trying to work on.
“You try to be that way, and I think it helps all the people around you when you can be more like that.”
Championship favorite Kyle Larson tempers expectations as Playoff approaches
Kyle Larson has won five races this season, more than any other driver in the NASCAR Cup Series.
His No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has been the dominant car for the majority of the first 26 races.
In his first year in the Hendrick ride, Larson won the Regular Season Championship and carries 52 Playoff points into the postseason, 28 more than second-place Ryan Blaney and third place Martin Truex Jr.
The Playoff tracks line up favorably for Larson, and at Phoenix, the speedway that will decide the championship, he has finished no worse than seventh in his last five starts.
Oddsmakers have anointed Larson the heavy favorite to win the title, but the driver himself is reluctant to say he expects to do so, even in the light of his regular season dominance.
“You see how tough the series is, really,” Larson said. “Ten weeks is a long time—four weeks is a long time. So ten’s a long stretch here, and a lot of stuff can happen. It seems like always each year there’s adversity that you have to overcome at some point.
“There’s teams that come and go still. I’m sure there’s teams out there that haven’t peaked yet. Who knows if we’ve peaked already—I don’t really know. It’s hard to predict and expect anything in this series… Yeah, I mean we’ve got a great opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to go do it.”
Source: Reid Spencer / NASCAR Wire Service
