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NASCAR CUP SERIES: ALSCO UNIFORMS 500May 28, 2020Ryan BlaneyConcord, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Ryan Blaney. We'll open it straight up for questions for Ryan. Q. Ryan, I was just wondering, now that we've had a few intermediate track races, where do you feel like you guys stack up with the rest of the field, and do you have any concerns going forward about whether you're behind or where you need to be or anything like that? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I think we've had a handful of them, and honestly I think the best group out there right now is Hendrick. They have really great speed right now on the mile‑and‑a‑halfs or the bigger tracks. I've seen it. They might not‑‑ they've kind of had some unfortunate circumstances, which is actually our team has capitalized on. The Penske group has capitalized on at a couple of them tracks, but Hendrick is really strong. I feel like we're close with our group. We've just got to find a little bit more. No concerns, just got to keep working and see where the year goes. It's tough with no practice and things like that. You're just kind of hoping things work at the shop and lining up and racing them. That's a little bit tough to learn I feel like, but I feel like we're close to where we need to be, but that group is definitely pretty special right now, especially at the mile‑and‑a‑half, so we'll see when we get to some shorter tracks where we stack up like at Bristol, but we've got a little bit of work to do. Q. A long week this week with the weather delays, postponements. How do you get yourself mentally prepared with such a short turnaround to go to a physical race like Bristol? RYAN BLANEY: Just another race. Short turnaround, whether it's two, three days, it's never really bothered me. I'd race every day if I could, and I've never really had a problem with fatigue or anything like that. And mentally guys want to race all the time. You don't want to stop racing. I feel like it's real easy for drivers to recharge their brains for sure of getting prepared for the following race, even if you've only got two, three days in between. Personally for me the physical side has never really bothered me, and it's really the mental side, just trying to reset and things like that. But that's never really been an issue. Q. Did you talk to Chase after Sunday night, and if you did, what were the conversations? RYAN BLANEY: I did. I actually‑‑ we actually stayed‑‑ he stayed with me throughout the week because he was running that truck race, so he stayed with me up back home. Yeah, we talked, talked about the race, things like that, and that's just bad luck. He's had a lot of bad luck. We all have our bad lucks. But that one for the 600 definitely stunk for him. But I feel like he didn't think on it too much. We talked about it that night, but the next day he was focused on that truck race and then he was focused on this race, and it showed in both races, obviously. That just shows how good he is, and letting the past be the past. Yeah, so we did talk, and it was a couple hours of it, but at the end of the day you move on, and he showed that he can move on from something that big and really go execute and win two in a row. Q. How would you describe his mood Sunday night when you guys were talking? RYAN BLANEY: I don't really know. He was just Chase. You know, we joked around a little bit and just talked about how much that stunk. Just those things happen. We had the same thing happen to us at Vegas this year when we pitted and a lot of people stayed out and it just didn't work and ended up not winning the race. You're bummed, you're pissed off a little bit, but really there's no sense in dwelling on it. You try to learn from it as quick as you can. But his attitude was obviously disappointed, but at the same time, like I said, he was just normal Chase. Q. Can you just walk me through what happened in that final‑‑ those final seconds of the race when you were running next to Denny? What did you see from your side? RYAN BLANEY: I saw him going past me. That's what I saw. I was getting tight. I was free all night, and we tightened it up just a little bit, and we just kind of‑‑ I don't know, the track got a little tighter or we just went a little bit too far. I was pretty good for 30 laps, 35 laps, and I just started getting really tight and he was running me down and I was struggling. Hey, we lost second place, but just yeah, we ran me down and was able to get around me in traffic. Q. I've got to ask, the squirt bottle there to the face mask at the end, was that planned or was that one of your famous gags? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I've seen some stuff on that, did you not realize your mask was on? Of course I realized the mask was on. I thought it was funny. I had to get a drink in and I'd probably get in trouble if I took the mask off to get a drink, so I figured I'd just squirt‑‑ I didn't get anything. Nothing goes in them things, so it works. I thought it was funny. Trying to have a good time, and I got a little Bodyarmor drink in there, too, so that was good. Q. Ryan, you have had obviously a lot of good runs this year on the intermediate tracks, but I know you didn't get a ton of laps at Phoenix when you had the new short track package for this year. I know Bristol has been a really good track for you the last few years, especially the spring races. Does the way you guys have been running give you any confidence heading into Sunday's race? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I think you always have high confidence. I thought our cars‑‑ our car was pretty decent at Phoenix, we just got caught up in that wreck there before we could even get a chance to really work on it, which really stunk. You would have liked to be able to kind of see where your car went, but really at the end of the day, this new low downforce package, we had it two years ago, and it's really similar to that. The only difference is the Mustang nose, and it's pretty funny that they built the Mustang nose for that low downforce package, and by the time the Mustang nose came out last year we were running the high downforce, so we never really got to test it like that until Phoenix, and it showed. All the Fords were really fast. I'm looking forward to Bristol. That race is really cool. I like both the races up there. The area is really nice. I'm looking forward to it. I think that Mustang nose that we had a couple years ago, the low downforce is what it was meant for, and I'm excited to get on the racetrack on Sunday. Q. It's been a bit of a rocky start for you. You had the second in the Daytona 500, then things got crazy a couple races before the shut down, and now you come out of Charlotte with a pair of third‑place finishes and really seems like things are trending in the right direction. Do you feel like things are back on the right foot, especially considering all the speed that all four of the Penske cars have? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I think so. It was just nice to have a couple smooth races and put them together. Like you said, we started off really good, and we go to Vegas there, leading it with a handful of laps to go and caution comes out and we pit and not end up winning the race. Then Fontana we had a good shot at running second and had that tire go down on us with a few laps to go, and then we got in a wreck at Phoenix and then we had a break. Honestly the Darlington races, we weren't very good in the first one, but we were actually pretty decent in the second one and I messed up and hit the fence and ruined our day. I feel like we've had top‑5 speed for most of the year, it's just kind of had a couple unfortunate things happen to us. These past two races I've been really proud of everyone's effort and just having smooth races and kind of putting all the pieces together. Like I said when we started, I think we were close, we've just got to find a little bit of speed here and there to go out and really dominate races and be able to go up there and pass the Hendrick cars or the Haas cars or the Gibbs cars and run away with it. I think we're close, just got to get to work, and it's nice to have a couple smooth races back‑to‑back. THE MODERATOR: Ryan, thanks for taking the time, and good luck at Bristol. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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