CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney has an air of confidence about him as the Cup Series Playoffs open Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Blaney and his Team Penske No. 12 Ford team enter the playoffs as fifth seed in the 16-driver field. Last year, Blaney claimed the championship after being seeded 12th.
“I definitely think you’re more confident in trying to get back to Phoenix,” Blaney said of the championship race at Phoenix Raceway in November. “It’s not as simple as just do what you did last year, though, but I feel like once you have that experience and you persevere through the three rounds to get there, then I think it really motivates your team and just gives them a level of confidence of like, ‘Hey, we know we can do this.
“We’ve been there before and now let’s try to figure out a way to do it again’ and accept all the challenges that are gonna be thrown at you and use your experience to your advantage. So, hopefully, we can bring that same intensity that we did to the playoffs last year again. The first couple of rounds were a little funky, obviously, but it’s the same for everybody so, hopefully you kind of stay clean the first round. I think that’s the biggest thing. It’s like finish where you are supposed to finish. You never know what’s gonna happen, but I think our group is doing really well right now.”
The third-generation racer believes his team is better prepared for the playoffs than it was last year.
“I feel like we’re really good,” said Blaney, who won twice during the regular season. “I thought at this time last year we were kind of scrounging to try and figure out how we were going to perform how we need to because we were off a little bit and this year I think we’re in a much better spot, so hopefully we can continue to bring that same pace and continue to learn on the pace that we’ve been bringing the last few months. This group is in a way better spot and our Team Penske group as a whole is in a much better spot as well.”
The playoffs begin at Atlanta where Blaney was involved in a three-wide photo finish with Daniel Suarez and Kyle Busch in February.
“That was definitely an exciting finish. I didn’t feel upset about it,” Blaney recalled. “It was pretty wild and I kind of put in my head like, ‘I’ve won them by that much, too.’ So, the fact that I lost one by half a foot I can’t really be mad about it. I’ve won more than my fair share of what I honestly should have won, just by odds, by a foot or two.
“It was just a neat finish. I didn’t know who won. That was interesting because the ones I’ve won, like Talladega, where it was super close and it was just me and another car side-by-side and I can kind of see I beat that guy. But, me, when I was the bottom of three, I couldn’t see Daniel but I knew I beat the 8 and I didn’t see the 99, so I really thought we won just because I couldn’t see Daniel’s car, and then Timmy told me that he got us, but that was a great finish, a spectacular finish. Like I said, that’s like the only time I wasn’t upset about running second at all. It was like, ‘Oh, we didn’t win. Well, that was still a good night.’”
However, Blaney heads to Atlanta suffering from a minor arm injury suffered in a lap-three crash last Sunday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
“My elbow got hurt in that deal and kind of made my hand not feel great, either,” Blaney confirmed. “It’s funny how all the stuff is connected, but I was OK the next couple days and ready to go.”