Running the Gauntlet: Blaney Gears Up for the Playoffs, Cup Title Defense

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

HAMPTON, Ga. – Ryan Blaney’s defense of his 2023 NASCAR Cup Series title starts in earnest this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, with hopes of returning to the championship podium 10 weeks from now at Phoenix.

Having made the run through the postseason to capture his first Cup championship a year ago, Blaney and his No. 12 Team Penske group have a blueprint of what it takes to get it done, but explained they won’t be able to use a carbon copy for the 2024 Playoffs, given the intricacies of each postseason run.

“It’s nice that we’ve done it before coming off it last year and you feel like you have a decent idea of, hey, we did this really well last year. How can we kind of have some kind of a similar way to get there?

“You can’t just do the same thing. Things change every year and you’re gonna get put in different situations, but the mental toughness that we had through the playoffs last year, I was super proud of.

“Not every race in all 10 weeks is gonna be perfect. You’re gonna have some holes you need to crawl out of. But I thought we did a good job of like being resilient and just understanding, hey, we’re not in the best spot right now, but hey, we have another week. Or we have two more races, you know, in this round to kind of get where we need to be.”

Though it has been a struggle the last two weeks with DNFs at Daytona and Darlington, Blaney explained that hasn’t dampened the spirits of his team for the postseason, where he enters Sunday’s Quaker State 400 situated fifth in points, currently 15 points over the cut-off line.

He also comes into a track where he finished second back in February in the thrilling three-wide photo finish with Daniel Suarez and Kyle Busch and will have a front row start when the green flag drops for the 260-lap event.

“I think this group is really geared up and ready for it,” Blaney said of his team’s mentality for the Playoffs. “And, hopefully, we can do our job the best that we can to continue to move on and have a shot at it again at Phoenix. That’s really all you can ask for is how you get to Phoenix and that’s a whole ‘nother ball game.

“It’s just the gauntlet of nine weeks, like that I think is the toughest part is like getting to Phoenix. It’s super tough because you have to minimize all your mistakes. You can’t really have any big mistakes. You’re racing so many good teams and drivers. That’s the toughest part is like this just grueling nine weeks of, gosh, you can’t afford to mess up because you’ll be out before you know.”

Blaney added that the uncertainty of the first round of the Playoffs with a superspeedway in Atlanta, a road course at Watkins Glen and a short track at Bristol has introduced a whole new element to this year’s Playoffs, with one bad race enough to dampen the hopes of any of the championship contenders – including himself.

“Those advantages, they can vanish rapidly if you have a bad day [Sunday],” Blaney said. “You just take it one race at a time and control each lap like the best that you can. Really, the only thing you can do on our side, like at places like this, is just everybody do your job and execute no mistakes, and whatever happens, happens. If you get caught up in a big melee, you can’t really be too upset. Like, we did all we could and just really wasn’t in the cards for us and we’ll move on to next week and try to be better next week and finish well.

“Definitely a funky round, round one. I think you’re gonna have teams that make mistakes. I think you see that kind of, especially in round one when there’s 16 of us, you have some teams that make mistakes on pit road or on the racetrack and things like that and it kind of bites ’em. You just hope to not be one of those teams.”

In addition to the comradery of his team, Blaney has also been able to lean on his father, Dave Blaney, for some words of wisdom as he hopes to make it back-to-back championships. The younger Blaney explained that his father told him he’s right where he needs to be, right where he was a year ago when he stormed through the Playoffs to the title.

“You’re on the same path you are to go that you were last year. You’ve been on that same path all year this year to win another championship. He said, your path is so bright, the astronauts can see it in outer space,” Blaney said of his father’s words of encouragement.

“Hopefully we can take what we learned last year kind of in the Playoffs as a team and as a group and hopefully our speed’s there to where we can execute and not have any mistakes internally on our side. I think if we can kind of keep it clean and perform like I know we can perform, hopefully we have a shot at it.”