Photo: Stephen A. Arce/ASP, Inc.

Blaney Aims to Become First Back-to-Back Cup Champion in Playoff Era

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

AVONDALE, Ariz. – No driver in the NASCAR Cup Series has won back-to-back championships since Jimmie Johnson in 2009-2010 at the end of his run of five straight championships.

Ryan Blaney will be looking to buck that trend when the green flag flies on Sunday’s Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway where he enters as the defending series champion.

In a title run eerily similar to his run a year ago, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford comes into the season finale having won in a walk-off at Martinsville, carrying the momentum into the championship race and on to his first Cup Series title.

Coming off that same win at Martinsville, Blaney will be looking for that same wave of momentum to carry him to the top of the mountain once again.

“I talked about momentum last year and confidence coming into this race and we were able to utilize that and I think it’s the same way, especially how we won it,” Blaney said.

“You know, I feel like it’s even more momentum than last year because kind of winning that must win last week at Martinsville. I think that Martinsville win last week was even bigger than 23 because we didn’t have to win that race last year at Martinsville.

“We just had to have a good day, but we still ended up winning, which was great momentum for us. But I think just the lows of me losing the race at Miami, us rebounding, Martinsville must win, doing it coming from where we did in the pack to get the lead there at the end and carrying it into this week.

“Having the chance to do what we can do this week and going back-to-back. Riding high for sure, but we’re fully focused on what it takes to do it.”

Assessing his chances to pull off the back-to-back feat, Blaney noted that his team has just as good if not better odds of making it happen given they already have the playbook from doing the same last year and the confidence throughout the entire team that once again, it’s their year.

“Every one of us is gonna say we feel great about our chances and we think we’re the best group and as they should, right? Everyone needs to be confident in their team,” Blaney said.

“But yeah, I can personally say by our group, I feel like we’ve been incredibly strong all year, really. It doesn’t really show how great we’ve been really as a 12 team. It’s easy for me to see it and how they are operating. I feel like it has been just unbelievable.

“This place has been pretty good to us in the past. I feel like our performance of these types of racetracks this year have been really, really strong. Hopefully that continues. You just never know. You never know who has what speed.

“I think our 12 group is executing really, really well and we’re controlling things we can control to the best of our ability. And that’s really all I can ask for. And if it’s enough, that’s great. If it’s not, then you’re gonna come up short. But all I can ever ask is just give everything you got. And that’s all I ever ask of my guys. And when they do that, they can be winners and win championships and hopefully we bring that attitude.”

In addition to the chance of going back-to-back, there are a number of additional milestones that Blaney and his team can accomplish should they be the victors on Sunday and hoist the Bill France Cup once again.

Blaney could not only win three Cup championships in a row for Ford, but three in a row for Team Penske, giving team owner Roger Penske another title to add to his already illustrious resume.

“I think it would just mean a lot to go back-to-back. It’s something that’s really difficult to do. Obviously, it hadn’t been done in a while. There’s a reason for that. It’s hard to get here two years in a row and then perform on the weekends. So yeah, it would mean the world. Mean even more than the first to be honest with you.”

He added that should he win the day on Sunday, being able to give Penske another championship would be the greatest gift he could provide for his team owner, who has won nearly anything and everything across the motorsports spectrum from NASCAR to IndyCar to sports cars and beyond.

“I’ve always just talked about and I’ve always thought internally to myself, I’m like, how do you make Roger proud?” Blaney pondered.

“That’s my only goal in my racing life for the last 12 years is like, how do I make Roger proud? Because he has given me my life, really. Bluntly, at the end of the day, it’s win races and win championships and bring him things that he hasn’t done before.

“It’s a very small list of things that he hasn’t done in motorsports and we have a chance to do it for him. It’s just great to be in a position to where we can do it, to have two cars that can do it. The pressure side, I don’t think it’s any more pressure because they won those championships. There already is pressure because this is a big moment, but pressure is fine.

“It means you care when you feel pressure and you’re anxious about things. It means you give a crap about what you’re doing and it’s how do you respond to that and how do you kind of use it to drive you. So yeah, it’d be great to add another one. That’d be a heck of an end of the year for RP.”

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David Morgan is the Associate Editor for Motorsports Tribune. A 2008 graduate from the University of Mississippi, David has followed NASCAR since the early 90’s and became hooked at an early age after attending his first race at Talladega Superspeedway in 1993. He has traveled across the country since 2012 to cover some of the most prestigious events both IndyCar and NASCAR have to offer, with an aim to only expand on that in the near future.