Heading into the seventh race of the NASCAR Cup Series season Sunday at Richmond (Va.) Raceway, the contending drivers and teams are beginning to separate themselves from the pack.
With all eyes on points leader Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and William Byron atop the standings, Ryan Blaney sits quietly in the top 10 without much buzz.
The Team Penske driver is eighth in points, 49 markers behind Bowman.
Through the first two months of the season, Blaney’s three top-10 finishes is headlined by a runner-up result at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway.
As the Cup Series hits the three-quarter-mile, D-shaped oval in Virginia’s capital city for the first of two trips this season, Blaney believes the new aero package implemented for the Next Gen race car at Phoenix will bring more close, on-track action compared to what was seen in the Arizona desert.
“I think it will be better at Richmond than Phoenix because Phoenix is pretty fast and Richmond you’re going a lot slower, tires wear out a lot more, so hopefully that helps it out,” Blaney said. “Richmond struggled a little bit last year, I thought, so I’m optimistic on going forward to Richmond and then Martinsville, I think, it’s gonna be even better yet.
“Drivers are gonna have their hands full by themselves trying to keep tires on it with the lack of rear grip, and I’m hopeful that the traffic side is better. I think it’s gonna be.”
The driver of the No. 12 Ford Mustang started on pole for the spring race at Richmond last season and finished seventh after leading 128 laps.
While Richmond demands a short, technical approach compared to the higher speeds of Phoenix, Blaney believes Team Penske’s short track setup is a good baseline for the season.
“Basing it off of Phoenix, I thought our short-track program was pretty decent,” Blaney said. “We started off the race not great. We could have maybe run seventh to 10th at the start and then by the end I thought we could have run fourth to sixth.
“I didn’t think we were a winning car at Phoenix. The Hendrick (Motorsports) cars were good. The 4 (Kevin Harvick) was good there at the end before the last caution, so I think it’s OK. Phoenix is a little bit different. It’s a fast short track, so Richmond will be a good gauge of where you stack up – slow, a bunch of mechanical grip, tire conservation, so I’m optimistic for it, for sure.”
Blaney’s optimism is a telling sign of things to come, not only with Team Penske’s short-track package, but with the confidence level he has in the No. 12 team.
“I thought we had good cars there last year in both races from the whole team and I’m excited to get there,” said Blaney, whose last Cup Series victory came Aug. 28, 2021 at Daytona Int’l Speedway. “Hopefully, we learned a little bit from Phoenix that we can apply over to Richmond and keep building on that race track. So, I think it’s OK, but you can always improve, and I think we can get a little bit better.”