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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: BANK OF AMERICA ROVAL 400September 30, 2018Ryan BlaneyConcord, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by our race winner, Ryan Blaney, driver of the No.12 Menards PENNZOIL Ford. We know that everyone is obviously on deadline and looking for some comments from Ryan, so we'll just open it up for questions. Q. How big is this victory for you not just as your first win as a member of Team Penske, but the timing of being able to pull this off today with the playoffs and knowing that you were in a precarious position coming into it? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, it was kind of one of the thoughts in the back of our head. Kind of the strategy for the race was really don't give up stage points and try to maximize on that side of it, and we did a really good job of the strategy of being able to win that second stage and stretch it on fuel and win that stage. That was really big for us. That kind of set up our whole day, even though we had to go to the back and pit again. We were able to kind of put ourselves in a spot to where towards the end of the day we were just racing the 88 and 14, and we were just right in front of or behind the 88 just because we didn't want to let him out of our sight, so when he pitted towards the end of the race, we pitted, just to stay on the same strategy. Same with the 14. We put ourselves in a spot to capitalize on something happening, and we did. But really big to be able to win for Roger. Obviously that's not the way I'd want to do it. Obviously I want to go out and dominate the race. Whenever you win something like this, it's a weird feeling. I don't really want to call it an undeserved feeling, but it's just kind of an odd feeling. But we put ourselves in a good spot, and it worked out for us. When I was running third, I was just thinking about points. We were good on points, and I was cool with just riding around in third. But then that situation happened, and we happened to be there. Q. You're a history buff; this race had shades of the last lap of the 1976 Daytona 500. Thoughts there from the driver's seat, and what are you thinking as all of a sudden you see Truex and Jimmie start going every which way? RYAN BLANEY: You know, when I got out of the Bus Stop, I could still see them through the oval 3 and 4, and they were really close to each other. Jimmie was almost pushing him. I was like, hmm, it might get physical here. I don't know what happened. By the time I got to them or by the time I was able to see something, Jimmie was sideways, and I'm sure they just tried to out‑brake each other, which you can't blame them. They're going for the win, of course. When I was thinking they were kind of sitting there, I almost wrecked trying to get through the chicane as fast as I could just because you're trying to make up time and try to seize the moment. But it was kind of just disbelief. I didn't know what‑‑ you're kind of shocked that something like that happens and that you're lucky to be in that spot. Luck has not been on our side very often. Sometimes you find a nut. But it was good to have happen. It's‑‑ not good that that happened, just luckily it worked out for us. Q. We've heard a lot about this race the past few months, weeks leading up to it. Now that it's over, regardless of the finish, how would you describe it overall and would you consider it a success? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, it was a tough race. I'm pretty worn out. The racetrack is really, really difficult. A lot of hard racing. I think the only thing‑‑ there's a few things I'd like to see changed as far as the speed bumps and stuff and the curbs. I'd like to see that be a little bit different as far as the way they shape them and mound them. It was really hard to pass. I thought there was very few passing zones, so that was pretty difficult. But I think you can tweak on it. Nothing is ever perfect, especially the first time you try something new. I don't want to‑‑ I'm definitely not going to bash it. That's not even‑‑ if I wouldn't have won the race, I wouldn't bash it because I thought it had potential. I know a lot of people bashed it leading up to it, but it was definitely hectic at times, but a really tough racetrack. But you can tweak on it, made some changes, and I think keep progressing it, and it could get better and better. Q. Were you curious how they were going to score you after the accident in Turn 1, and how pleased were you by where they put you? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I was pretty confident they were going to put me back behind the 88 because that's where we were. It was kind of right at the last scoring loop there when the caution came out, and I was pretty confident they were going to put me back to where we should be, and I thought they made the right call there. I was more worried about the damage we got. I kind of clipped somebody with my right front tire, and it spun the wheel really fast out of my hands, and I was like, I broke something, and the toe was kind of out, so that worried me, and there was damage all the way down the right side of the door. I was worried about it rubbing. But you couldn't pit. You pit and you go back to 25th and you're out of the points. But yeah, I figured they would put us back up there where we belonged because I was going back to the scoring loop, and that's where we were at. Q. You said you don't blame Jimmie for going for it, but it cost him a playoff spot. Does it surprise you that somebody would go for a win when if he finishes second he's still running for a championship? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I didn't know where his spot was. I didn't know his position in the race. He didn't, either. Yeah, I didn't know where he was sitting. But yeah, I can't speak on it just because I'm not him. You make decisions every single second behind the race car, and sometimes really hard decisions, and sometimes the will to win kind of is too high to just sit there and run second. I couldn't really give you a good thought on that just because I'm not Jimmie Johnson. Q. Ryan, coming to that restart where they crashed in Turn 1, did you have a feeling that that was going to happen at some point in time, and were you a little surprised that from your position you were able to get through there with little to no damage? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, so the restart is so tough because you don't run the chicane on the front stretch, and you just run the normal restart zone, so by the time you're going, you're going so much faster than when you come out of that chicane when you do a restart. But from what I saw, everybody got in there as deep as the leaders did, the cars just followed them in there. Because when you're restarting, you're kind of just judging off of the cars in front of you of where to get on the brakes because when they're all jumbled up, you can't see markers, you don't see where you are on the track, you're just going by the guy in front of you. I figured that was going to happen at some point, and that was kind of the‑‑ getting down to crunch time and drivers trying really hard to win the race. I was actually at the top of 3 when this happened, and I could not believe I did not get more damage. I collected‑‑ we barely, barely squeezed by‑‑ we didn't even squeeze by; we hit something. I know people were talking about that corner leading up to it. It's just tight and it's slippery getting into that corner, and just drivers racing hard, and stuff happens like that. Q. Roger mentioned when he was in earlier that he had had a conversation with you in Victory Lane, and he seemed especially excited about your prospects for the second round of the playoffs. Can you assess how you think they've gone so far up until this win today, and what gets you excited about the next stage? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, leading into the playoffs, honestly, we were most nervous about round 1. There were some tracks in there that weren't very good for us. Richmond we've struggled at, and here you just didn't know what was going to happen, and we didn't have the best day at Las Vegas, which is usually a good track for us. But yeah, this is the round I was worried about. We did a great job today before the last couple cautions of putting ourselves in a spot to move on to the second round, and the reason why he and I were talking about the second round if I think there's some good tracks there for us. Dover we always run pretty decent at; Talladega, our speedway cars are pretty good; and then Kansas has been one of our best racetracks for sure, especially in the Cup Series. I'm looking forward to the second round. In the third round there's been some tracks that are good for us, too. Yeah, the first round we were worried about it just because some places we struggle and some of the unknowns. But second round, hopefully it goes well. Just good tracks for us. That's really all we were talking about is places we have run decent at. Even though it's a wild card like Talladega, I think our speedway stuff is okay, so hopefully we can just stay out of trouble there. Q. Although there were unknowns going into this race, did anything surprise you about how it went or what you went through today? RYAN BLANEY: Surprise me? Really the only thing that surprised me was the ending. I didn't expect that to happen. But as far as the racing today or what the track kind of went to, not really. Nothing really shocked me as far as the racetrack went or how things raced. I thought it was pretty much of what we thought. Actually I thought it was calmer than what it was going to be. I thought there was going to be‑‑ the first three quarters of this race was pretty calm. There wasn't really any pile‑ups or big wrecks or anything like that. There was a couple cars going off here and there, and even towards the end there wasn't massive wrecks or nothing like that. You really just had that one. I think maybe that was something different. And I kind of got that feeling yesterday in the Xfinity race, there wasn't really any of that. There wasn't any big pile‑ups. I think everybody respected out there for sure, but at the same time had really hard racing. But nothing really surprised me too much as far as the racing went. Q. Can you further just kind of explain when you talk about that you referenced you undeserving feeling‑‑ I know every racer just wants to dominate the field, but I mean, I'm sure there's still a lot of joy, or is it tempered, or can you give me a little better‑‑ what you're feeling in that sense? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I'm actually happy you asked another question because I didn't think I described it very good the first time. You know, you're happy that it's worked out for you. You're happy you won the race. You're happy for the team to do that. But me personally inside, there's some of me, I'm happy, I'm like, all right, this is great, we put ourselves in a spot to do this. But you don't want people to look at it and I don't look at ‑‑ I don't want people to look at it as, oh, you just won because the two guys wrecked. And that's what it was, and you don't want to be kind of overjoyed about it, I guess, you know, but you have to have some pride in it, I guess. It's a weird feeling. Like I said, I hate using that "undeserved" word because they deserved it because we put ourselves in that spot. I don't know if‑‑ I don't have the vocabulary to describe the feeling. But it's just a different‑‑ I've never won a race like that before. Any race I've ever been in, quarter midgets, late models, legends cars, I've never been running third and the two cars wreck each other and I win the race, so that's kind of a weird feeling. But you try to enjoy it. You try to be as humble as you can about it because you know you weren't the best car today, so I think being humble is a very big part of it, but at the same time, celebrate because you've got to take them how you can get them. We did our job in the points to move on to the next round even if we didn't win the race, so that's something you have to be very proud of, and I think just a bonus is winning the race and things work out for you that way. Hopefully I described it good. It's kind of hard to describe. Q. Being from High Point, talk about the significance of you winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway. RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, High Point, about an hour up the road. We did that‑‑ me and Rutledge did the Racing Roots thing from High Point, so that was really cool to go back home, see some great friends and family. A family I had on the show that kind of was my second family, their son, my best friend was here today, so that was pretty cool to have him out. But yeah, it means a lot. I consider this a home racetrack for sure, like a lot of guys, but I came here all the time to watch my dad race. This is the first race my dad has been to in about six, seven weeks. He finally got a weekend off of racing the All‑Stars, and I told him he needs to come more often; he might be a good‑luck charm. But it was cool to have the whole family here. My mother was here, my six‑month pregnant sister was here, so that was good, and we were just missing one of them. But it was cool to have the family here, but yeah, High Point and being so close to this place, it brings back a lot of memories whenever I go back home. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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