Ryan Blaney has emerged as a serious contender for the NASCAR Cup Series regular season title after securing a dominant win at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend. Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, the Team Penske star reflected on his recent run of strong, consistent results and assessed his chances to claim his first regular-season championship.
The former NASCAR Cup Series champion earned 75 points by winning the Atlanta race, significantly closing the points gap to leader Denny Hamlin in the driver’s points standings. He stands third, 65 points behind Hamlin, with six races left in the regular season.
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In an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Ryan Blaney admitted the No. 12 Team Penske team has executed at a high level despite Ford’s issues this season. He added that if he continues producing similar results over the final stretch of the regular season, a regular-season championship is not out of the question.
“Our execution has been really good. We’ve been solid on pit road. We haven’t really made a bunch of mistakes or hiccups. So everyone’s really clicking right now and we’re gaining on it for sure. So we definitely, it’s not out of the question. We just gotta keep doing what we’re doing and we might be able to get there by the end of the regular season” the Team Penske star said.
Ryan Blaney dominated the race at Atlanta from pole, sweeping both stages and leading a race-high 171 laps before edging out Bubba Wallace and Carson Hocevar in a three-wide thrilling battle to the finish on the final lap. The win marked his second of the season and his 19th of his career.
Blaney is Ford’s highest-ranked driver in the points table and one of only three Ford drivers currently positioned above the Chase bubble.
“We’ve just worked through it”: Ryan Blaney discusses the No. 12 Team Penske’ strong performance
Ryan Blaney and his No. 12 team have shown an impressive consistency in the last two months, recording eight consecutive top-10 finishes. He scored two wins, two poles, four top-five, and 15 top-10 finishes with an average finish of 10.5 through the first 20 races this season.
Speaking about his strong spell of results, Blaney said:
“Our group’s done a really good job of managing the last couple months really kind of maximizing our day no matter what our day is looking like. If we have a 11th to 13th place car in the beginning of the race, how do we get that better through the race? We’ve been able to do that to where we’ve been able to go run six to eight at some of the tracks to where we’ve been a little bit off, like some of the mile and a half, but we’ve just worked through it. So that’s a big testament to the whole 12 team”
Watch Ryan Blaney in action next at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday, July 19.
Edited by Yash Soni
