MARTINSVILLE, Va. — It’s no secret that Ryan Blaney probably has to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway to advance to the Championship 4 and have a chance to become a back-to-back Cup Series champion.
But Blaney has an affinity for the .526-mile short track that carries back to the 30-year-old driver’s childhood. It’s his favorite race track on the Cup Series schedule.
“I grew up in High Point, so like 45 minutes away from there, so we went there a lot when I was younger,” said Blaney, who grew up watching his dad, Dave, race in the Cup Series. “It was a place that we would always go to twice a year as a family, just because it was easy to get to and you’d drive to it, and I just thought the race track was incredibly neat, and it reminded me, it’s a really small short track and it reminded me like, ‘Oh, I can kind of relate to this because I’m running Legends cars and Bandoleros,’ and even started my late model career. Like, ‘OK, I can kind of relate to this short-track style of racing.’
“And I just loved how the cars were so close together and you could see everything as a kid. We’d go sit in the stands and you could watch the whole race track and there was always something going on no matter where you looked, and I liked that as a kid,” Blaney recalled. “I enjoyed the noise of it as a kid and the smells that were right there, and then I remember watching – I think it was 2011 – fans don’t like it but I think Harvick passed Dale Jr. with like six to go and I was sitting on my dad’s pit box.
“He was running for Baldwin at the time and I remember watching that race, our pit stall was right off of turn four and I remember watching the cars come off turn four and that was the first time I really understood and could watch them from the inside of the race track and really get a good picture of how the cars looked and how they drove and it just intrigued me as a kid.
“I think it was just a lot of relatability from what I was racing at the time and I just loved how small the track was and you could see every little bit of the race track and you could walk around in the infield and go to different parts of the track and see whatever you wanted to see, and it was just a close place,” Blaney said. “I honestly named that as my home track because I honestly grew up closer to Martinsville than I did to Charlotte from High Point, so it’s just one of those things that just grabs you as a kid and you have these core memories when you were growing up.”
He also knows how to make fast laps at the legendary short track.
“As a driver, I feel like I have a decent understanding of what I need through practice and then the race to be good there, and it’s just kind of how you want your car to drive.,” said Blaney, who earned his spot in last year’s Championship 4 with a victory at Martinsville. “It’s how you drive the race track and how you adjust as the track changes. The track changes a ton through the race and through a single run with the concrete corners, where it kind of gets darker and rubbers down, and I feel like it’s just clicked.
“It’s one of those places I love going to. We always seem to bring some good stuff and hopefully that continues, but I really enjoy that place,” he said. “It was a tough few years before that in trucks and my early years of Cup racing, but once I understood you’re like, ‘Oh, OK. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before,’ and you hope you continue to evolve your skills to adjust for the new tire, or a different car or different situations. It’s been a pretty solid place for us, so hopefully that continues.”
Blaney believes Martinsville is the ideal track to host the cutoff race for the round of 8 in the playoffs.
“I think it’s great when they, I forget what year they made – a handful of years ago – they made Martinsville the final race of the Round of 8. It used to be the first one and I feel like it’s the perfect final race for this round because it’s a grueling 500 laps around that place,” Blaney said. “It’s really really tough to mentally and the physical side of it – you’re worn out after this thing – so I think it’s a perfect race for it. It always puts on a good show. You’re gonna have contact through the race between a lot of drivers just because the place is so tight and you’re gonna have people be aggressive and then with the hype of that race being your last shot for six other guys to get in, you’re gonna have a lot of intense moments.
“I feel like that’s what it should be. That’s what the playoffs are for – having these really hard races and a place like Martinsville being the last shot for six guys to do it and have a shot at a championship, it’s the perfect scenario.”