NASCAR CUP SERIES: CHAMPIONSHIP

November 5, 2023

Ryan Blaney

Frontstretch Quotes

An Interview with:

Q. Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney. Incredible battle with Kyle Larson. What did you say to yourself before the final restart?

RYAN BLANEY: Just time to go to work. I mean, did a good job of getting to where we needed to be. Those guys had two good pit stops. Just need to go to work. Hoping our car was good enough, which it was.

Just so proud of this team. Unbelievable year, unbelievable Playoffs for us. To win back-to-back Cup titles for Mr. Penske, that's so special. Having my family here, winning my first Cup title, I got emotional in the car. I'm not a very emotional guy.

Thank you, guys, for coming. Hope it was an awesome show.

Appreciate Menards/Dutch Boy, Ford, Wurth, Advance Auto Parts, BODYARMOR, Dex Imaging, Wabash, everybody that makes this possible. John Menard is here, so cool to get him a championship. Can't wait to celebrate with my guys.

Q. What was going through your mind on the final few laps?

RYAN BLANEY: No yellow (laughter). I didn't want a caution. Once I got to the white, felt pretty good about it. It's just about getting there, finishing it off. Didn't want a yellow. Everyone kept it straight. Going good.

I want to shout-out also Kyle and William, that was fun racing those guys all day, and the 20 Bell, unfortunately he broke. Racing those two guys at the end, racing clean, that's what racing is all about. It was a lot of fun.

Q. Mid-season or early in the Playoffs, how improbable did this championship seem?

RYAN BLANEY: You never want to count yourself out. I mean, I think in the summer we were struggling a little bit. But we never gave up. We just went to work. I've said that all week, like, this group goes to work and they figure out problems. That's why they're such an amazing group to be with, with the Team Penske folks, 'cause they just put their head down and do the work, accept the challenge.

That's what we did. It's not happenstance we started running good through the Playoffs. It was a lot of hard work by a lot of amazing men and women at the shop. I can't thank them enough for that. They deserve this as much as the people who travel here, as 67 as me. They're as big a part of it.