NASCAR CUP SERIES: THE GREAT AMERICAN GETAWAY 400 PRESENTED BY VISITPA.COM

July 14, 2024

Ryan Blaney

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined race winning Ryan Blaney. We'll open the floor right up for questions.

Q. Given what this place meant for you at the start of your career, feelings are probably the same. What kind of feelings did this win evoke for you compared to the first one?

RYAN BLANEY: I really think it's just special. I feel like every win is very special. You have to cherish them. You never know when the next one is going to come. Hard to believe it's been seven years since I won the first time here. Time definitely flies. Like I said, different Victory Lane. I think this Victory Lane is pretty neat. All the fans being there, giving them an experience, too.

Yeah, I don't know, I feel like you approach it a little bit differently seven years later. It was cool that I got my 12th win in the 12 car where I got my first win. That's kind of a neat little tidbit. Just a really cool day. Gianna's family was here, even cooler for them to be here supporting me.

I feel like we've let a couple slip away in the last couple months. Good to close one out. Jonathan did an awesome job of sticking to our plan. We had a car that could do it and hold everybody off.

Just as special. Maybe, I don't know, all of 'em are special. That first one is hard to beat.

Q. Jonathan said your goal as a team is to be the team of the summer. That's were you heat up. That's evident given the past results. Do you feel like you are hitting your stride at the right time here in the summer?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I mean, I feel like the last two months we've been spectacular. Speed in our cars has been great. A couple finishes might not reflect that. It's really none of our doing. Gateway we had a great shot to win, didn't really work out. New Hampshire, had a great run, got spun out.

I am really feeling good about the speed in our cars right now across the board at Team Penske. I feel like we've found a lot of stuff. I talked the last month of short tracks, I think our short track program is fantastic and we need to work on the mile-and-a-half plus racetracks. We come today to a big two-and-a-half-miler and win it.

Gosh, we've done our homework since Charlotte and figured out how to compete with the Hendrick boys and the Gibbs guys, 23XI. We're right there.

I feel like the summer last year we struggled a little bit just trying to find some things that would work for us come Playoff time. I had to sit around all summer and hear that people say that we suck. We didn't want that this year.

At the same time we've been trying to find some things that are working for us, and they just have. Sometimes you try things that you want to focus on that you feel like is going to make your team and your organization better. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

What we've been doing this year has been working so I'm super proud of the effort all the boys and girls at Team Penske for putting the effort in. They are great at what they do. I couldn't find myself at another place because they just work really hard, put their heads down and figure out how to be better. It's cool to drive for a company like that.

Q. You said you're kind of in a better spot at this time this year than you were last year. Is that kind of a statement to the rest of the field?

RYAN BLANEY: I don't know. They take it how they want it. I just try to focus on our deal. I try not to get too focused on everyone else's stuff. I focus on our No. 12 group, and Team Penske, how can we make our whole organization strong for a month and a half, two months away when the Playoffs start.

I think it's a big testament to them of figuring out where we need to be better, figuring out the areas we need to improve on. From the start of the year with this car, with the new Ford nose, I think we were all struggling a little bit. We just accepted the challenge of we need to find some things and work hard at figuring it out.

Yeah, I think it's a huge testament. Hopefully we can keep it up. I've always looked at it no matter if you win during the week or you run 30th, you always have work to do. It doesn't matter 'cause everyone else is always getting better. You just hope to keep getting better. That's what this group does. Good or bad, they always try to find ways to improve. That's a pretty cool feeling.

Q. Will Power won at Iowa today.

RYAN BLANEY: I learned that in Victory Lane. Cool. Penske sweep. Scottie winning yesterday, Will winning today, us winning today. The big one is next week. How do we kiss the bricks with the captain. That's like a dream come true for me. Hopefully we can take some stuff we learned today and take it into next week.

Q. Would it be hard to go to the home of the captain a week after your INDYCAR guys swept Iowa but you didn't win here?

RYAN BLANEY: It would have been hard. But you definitely always want to make cool weekends. We've had the pleasure of sweeping last year at Indy 500 and the 600 which Josef, and Josef winning again this year at the 500. I think it was his 20th 500, RP. Now we have a unique opportunity to go and sweep Indianapolis for him and INDYCAR and NASCAR. That's a special deal.

We're going to enjoy this and appreciate it and celebrate it. But that is the one we have circled. We don't even talk about it in our camp. You know that is a huge one for RP. It is full speed ahead for Indy.

Q. Before the Next Gen car and the Indy road course, used to be said that there were a lot of similarities between running well at Pocono and Indy. Do you have any idea as to whether that might be the case or a big unknown since this car hasn't been on that track?

RYAN BLANEY: I think there are some unknowns. We learned a lot from the Wheel Force and Goodyear test there. I feel like the biggest corner you can kind of take away from this track that applies to Indy is three, turn three. Pretty flat. Fairly smooth corner. Indy has a lot of similarities.

I think we'll take the things we learned, what we worked on in practice through the race that helped us in turn three. I think you can apply it. Big track, momentum track. How do you get off the corner? I'm sure we'll be shifting at Indy like we were here.

I do think there are things that can carry over.

Q. In the past you said you wanted to be a guy who won races on a regular basis. You were asked if this was the best you felt the 12 team had ever been. Do you feel you're that kind of driver now?

RYAN BLANEY: I don't know. You always try to improve your mindset, your skill set week to week, year to year. I feel like when you're young and you're getting into it, all you care about is pushing the gas pedal down and you lose focus on the end goal, the task at hand.

I feel as you get older, it's easier to become smarter about things of looking at the bigger picture, how you approach weekends. Maybe you don't put up the fastest lap out there, but you race really well over 400, 500 miles.

I've tried to keep the same speed that I've had for a while, but also try to mold your mind into that's not everything that matters any more. Anyone can be fast. But can you put a whole race together and can you look at the end goal of where you want to be at a hundred miles to the end of the race. I've really worked hard on trying to do that, trying to become that guy.

I've had a lot of help along the way, which has been really great for me. Jonathan has been amazing to work with the last two and a half years. I have a really good group behind me. It's a product of a great team working together. I want them to be recognized because they do such a great job. It takes a village to make a race team successful. It's not just the guy behind the wheel. It's everybody involved with it, even the folks that don't travel.

I have had a lot of help with that and have been trying to get better at that, too.

Q. What was the key to making sure you focused and didn't let the cautions and restarts distract you?

RYAN BLANEY: I think the restarts were kind of the biggest concern for me at the end. I knew our car was probably good enough to where I could hold guys off if I came away with the lead off of one.

But you get to the restart, we had a handful, I don't know how many there were, four or five. I had to kind of deal with a couple different guys on the front row with me from the 11 to the 48. They kind of swapped who was pushing me behind me. Just trying to keep them organized, get through one good, trying to weather the storm.

Our car kind of came to life after three or four laps. I kind of had to weather the storm with the 48 for a little bit, keep him behind me. I knew we could kind of start pulling away to where I could get a good gap and save my stuff. If someone made a late charge, I had something in the tank.

The restarts were always crazy. When you get three or four restarts in a row, I've won four of 'em in a row, the odds are starting to stack against you where you don't win the last one, the one that matters. Luckily we were able to get through one clean and be able to set our sights just on clean track. Then it ran green flag towards the last 20 or so laps, whatever it was.

Yeah, restarts are always a challenge, especially here. Such a long frontstretch, you don't know if someone is going to shove it three-wide, if you're going to get a good push, if you're going to be in a position to enter one like you want or you're going to be a nose behind somebody where they can use up racetrack to where you are kind of behind the eight ball.

We timed the pushes really well, got through one really well where I could get clear and focus on our own deal.

Q. The Today Show, the ESPYs, now a win here at a track that means a lot to you. How do you look at kind of the journey of your career since getting the first win here first seven years ago?

RYAN BLANEY: I mean, I've just been fortunate to be on a cool journey. I always try to take things and appreciate 'em because like I said with the first question, how special, you never know when it's going to happen again. I feel like you have to appreciate 'em, appreciate the opportunities you're given.

Yeah, I've been fortunate to do some neat things this past year, especially after winning the championship. You try to boost the sport the best you can, get people to watch it. How do you get eyes on your sport? I feel like that is the hardest thing to do. How do you take somebody doesn't know anything about your sport and get them interested in it? How do you make people give a shit about what you do? I feel like going, meeting people, talk to them about the sport.

The biggest thing for me, you just got to get them to a race, get 'em here, because it's a whole new experience. It's like watching golf on TV. I love watching golf. I know golf. But watching golf in person and in TV is completely different. That's the same with any sport. You see the speed and athleticism of people. It gives you a different perspective and appreciation for it.

I've tried to take those opportunities and explain to people this is a unique sport, unlike any other sport. Motorsports is completely different. Just like every sport has its own little gimmicks that make it special, own abilities that make it hard to do.

Yeah, been fortunate to have some cool opportunities and draw eyes. You try to appreciate the people that are new to the sport and you also try to show thanks to the people that have been around the sport for a long time.

That's why I stood in Victory Lane for 30 minutes signing autographs to appreciate the people who came out and camped all weekend and hung out and brought their families out. We can't do it without them folks. Sold out campground, grandstands. That's the way this sport should be. I think it's on a great path right now. Hopefully we can keep it going.

Q. You were 23 years old when you won here the first time. Now you're 30 years old and a champion. Have you changed a lot? Do you feel like you're more confident, more mature? You look back at 23 versus now, look how far you've come.

RYAN BLANEY: I've matured a little bit. Not so much. I don't know. Yeah, I think you just get older. You just become a different person. As you get experience on earth, you just understand things a little bit more as opposed to when you were a young 20-year-old.

This sport is wild when you get thrown into it. I was lucky I grew up around it, kind of saw my dad do it, kind of saw how the process was. Until you're thrown into it, you don't know how it's going to be, how you handle things.

I've just tried to take everything in stride and appreciate things along the way. Like, I think that's the biggest thing is appreciate what you're doing because it's a cool thing to do.

At the end of the day it's a job and it's a hard job. When things are going great, rainbows and sunshine. When things are going bad, how do you get over those bad times. There's a lot of 'em.

Guys and teams, they go through a lot of bad times. It's how do you get over those and focus on what you can do better as a human being and as a competitor. I feel like I do that a little bit better as I've gotten older, how do you go through the bad times and look forward to the horizon.

I feel like that's the only thing that's changed. I'm still a silly, quiet kid. That side hasn't changed. I feel like the professional side has changed a little bit just in my mindset of how I approach weekends and how I approach working with my group.

I feel like that's kind of the biggest things that changed. I still drink a lot of beer as I did at 23. Probably more. Those are always fun, though.

Q. Can you also talk about the restart that was so chaotic. You stayed out of trouble.

RYAN BLANEY: This place is always just wild as far as strategy goes. You know you're going to find yourself towards the back at some point in the race, especially with whacky cautions that fall that kind of crumble your plans. It's how do you kind of change your plans.

Jonathan and I had a plan before the race. We had a handful of plans before the race happened. Then we kind of set our sights on the plan that we thought was going to set us up best to win the race.

We kind of found out early that I thought our car was good enough to win the race, it was a matter of getting there and getting to be able to restart on the front two rows. So we threw away stage points all day just to kind of set us up for the end of the race.

You hate giving away stage points, but when it all works out for you, that's fantastic. 90% of the plans you make go to hell. It's nice that 10% of the time it goes to your plan. Oh, this worked out perfectly for us.

He did a great job, Jonathan did an awesome job of sticking to what we were not destined to do but what our end goal was. Yeah, fortunately we had the car and the track position to make it work.

Q. Since St. Louis, all three Team Penske drivers have a win. What is it like with Team Penske knowing that all three drivers have a win in the span of a month going into the Playoffs?

RYAN BLANEY: It's definitely a hot streak we're on for sure. It's nice to get everybody locked in, that's for sure. With Austin's win at Gateway, him being a good ways below the cutoff line, that was a huge day for those two boys. With Joey flirting with the cut line, doing what he did at Nashville was huge for that team. It just takes a lot of pressure off the whole organization's shoulders when you get all three cars locked in. Hopefully we can get the 21 car in at some point here before the Playoffs and have everybody in.

So yeah, it's just neat. Like I said, it's a lot of comfort knowing you all have an end goal and focus for the final 10 weeks while also trying to stack up wins as you can in these final five races. It was cool to do it today.

Yeah, that's a testament to everybody at our race shop, the work that they do to make competitive cars when we unload, working on issues we feel we can get better at.

So yeah, that's all those folks back there in Moorseville.

Q. You got two wins now. So many of those drivers trying to take that title from you have three. Heading into Indianapolis, big track for Roger Penske, what are your chances to get the third there? A similar track in some ways that you can take to Indianapolis?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, hopefully we can take some speed that we learned this weekend and apply it to Indy. I mean, it's a race to where no one really knows what to expect. We haven't been there in this car. I think qualifying is going to be really important. Strategy is going to be wild, just like it was today. You just hope you hit it right.

Yeah, I think there are some things you can take away from this place that apply to Indy. Hopefully the things we learned over the weekend. I think all our cars were pretty good today. Joey ran fifth.

You try to keep figuring out what did we do good this weekend that we found since Charlotte, kind of our last mile-and-a-half racetrack, and how do we continue to get better. What did we do well? What worked? Then you try to tweak on that.

It's nice when things work out, when you kind of go to the racetrack and you're like, I hope this is better. So little practice now, there's not a lot you can change. It's nice that we've kind of hit it right here today, through the weekend, got better through the race. Hopefully we can do it again next week.

That's a cool one. I gave a race away there in '15 on the Xfinity side. It would be nice to get a little redemption.

Q. It seems like the overarching theme of this is appreciating each win. About Pocono being your first, have you spent the last 10 or so Pocono races since then thinking I want to get back to Victory Lane at Pocono?

RYAN BLANEY: I mean, I try not to think about it that way. I try to approach each weekend, let's do the best job we can, let's perform to the best of our ability, to my ability, everybody on pit road's ability. Whatever happens happens.

I don't know, last year I thought we had a good shot to win. I blew up leading. Other than that, last year and this year, I never really felt like, Man, I got a great shot to win today. I thought we were a top three to five car at best, but never thought we had a race-winning car.

I try not to get too hung up in, Man, I won my first race here, I want to win again. You always want to win at every racetrack again or for the first time. You do your best every given weekend whether you've won here or not. I try to approach each weekend the same.

Q. You're already a champion but just mentioned Indy. What's next on the bucket list in terms of goals for you?

RYAN BLANEY: Indy. That's the next one.

Q. When you look at it, it's been 13 years since Team Penske won a race here with Brad Keselowski in 2011. Does that mean anything extra for the organization?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I definitely think so. It's nice when you can win at tracks you haven't won at for a while as a company and as a group. There are some tracks to where teams perform better than others. It's just kind of a given thing.

Like ever since we went to Gateway, I feel like our team has been the best at Gateway, where others have struggled. That applies to places where we've not been good as a group. It's just the philosophy of what we do as a team maybe doesn't work for that track.

This place has kind of been one of those. What do we have to do to figure this place out as a whole group and a mindset as how we approach the weekend and how we set our cars up. You're always working at that. It's nice and fulfilling when you can do that. It shows that all your hard work meant something.

That part is good. It's something they should be proud of at Team Penske that all their hard work has meant something and they did a good job.

They had a task, we have to get better here, and they achieved that task. That is the most fulfilling thing ever. So they should be proud of that.

Q. The first couple months of the season for Team Penske and maybe Ford as a whole fly under the radar a little bit. Last couple months, Team Penske won four of the last seven races. What do you feel has changed the last couple months? Something as simple as wins are starting to fall your way or do you feel you found something in particular?

RYAN BLANEY: I mean, I feel like it's that we found something. I really don't think any wins have fallen our way. It's all about we've gotten better and been contending for wins. You have to put yourself in position to win the race, whether you're a first place car, a dominant car, or you're a third place car, you're in contention to win if you're a third place car, you just have to execute really well to win the race.

I feel like the first couple months of the year, minus the speedways, we just didn't have the speed. It was just a dogfight to run fifth. That's like executing everything perfectly to run fifth.

Now I feel like our speed has gotten here in the last couple months of we execute everything perfectly, our speed is race-winning speed. That makes everything not easier but wins will come your way more often if you can bring cars like that to the racetrack.

That part is good. I mean, like I just go back to it's a huge testament of everybody working and figuring it out. I didn't really panic the first couple months of the year when we were struggling a little bit. Ford as a whole. It's a process.

I talk about the ups and downs, how you handle 'em. I've always related this sport to a big circle of sometimes teams find things and they're on top for a while, then other teams find something that you don't, you kind of slip a little bit.

It's just a matter of peaking at a good time. We've just been able to do that the last two months of getting all of us in Victory Lane. You just hope to continue that. This team does a really good job of not getting complacent.

Good or bad, they're always working towards the future. The end goal in that is Phoenix. I feel like this is just fueling the fire for us. We're running really good right now, let's keep going, keep the hammer down, continue to run really well in these races and just be in contention to win. So yeah.

Q. You led the last 44 laps. Jonathan said even at lap 11 he got a little bit nervous because the speed went down. For you, when do you start to really know you think you're going to be the guy getting the checkered flag?

RYAN BLANEY: I figured in that first stage we had a race-winning contending car. I passed a couple guys there in the top seven. Man, our car can do some good things. We still have to get better. There's some things my car doesn't do very good. You know when your pace is good enough. You know if you have good speed in your car and you just have to kind of finite some things, figure out a way to restart on the front row or so.

Really when that happened in the first stage, that set up our whole game plan for the rest of the race. We're going to throw away stage points, we are going to try to cycle to the front. Just hope it works out in your favor.

I kind of knew that early. That kind of set us up for the end of the day. I feel like if we were a fifth place at best car, you'd probably go for stage points and then go try to run 10th, have a good points day. I knew early that our car was competitive enough to try to contend for the win, then we kind of migrated to that game plan.

Props to Jonathan for having that game plan, it working out. All the pit crew guys did a good job of executing when they needed to to keep us in that front battle.

It's a constant change of plans. You never know when a caution is going to come out. It can ruin or make your race. You just try to do the best you can with controlling the things that you can control, and we did. We controlled the hell out of things that we could control. It worked out the very best for us.

Q. You're now just one of five drivers with multiple wins here in 2024. What does that mean for you with unpredictable tracks?

RYAN BLANEY: It's always nice when you win your first and get locked in. Then it's how do we finish more and pad your Playoff points. The first round is whacky. You have the Glen, Atlanta, Bristol. The first round is a big curve ball for everybody. The best you can do is just try to pad your stats and give you a little bit of wiggle room if you have things that go wrong.

Atlanta you can get to lap two and be done. If you have a little bit in the bank it helps you out just a little bit more. That's kind of the biggest goal right now, is how do you continue to win more races, how do you continue to charge up through there in points with us trying to get Playoff points. How do we get to the top five or so to even get more. That's a huge thing in our mind right now.

Win has been always the top priority for our group. Our team has always been aggressive with how we call races and how we run. We've kind of lived and died by that. Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it doesn't work.

I feel like if you change up how you approach races and weekends all the time with being aggressive, conservative, you can kind of spin yourself out. It's almost like playing roulette, you're back and forth between red and black. Just stick to your color and maybe it will come around for you.

This group has done a good job of always sticking to what they believe in. It's always nice when it does work out for you. Like I said, sometimes it doesn't. You have to shrug your shoulders, that didn't work out for us today. You move on and kind of understand that's the way of the world.

Q. Is this the first time that Gianna's family has been here for a win for you?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, yeah. Her dad was here, a couple of her nephews and aunts and uncles. There were about eight of them today. That was neat to share that with them. It's always cool to have family with you at your races.

Gianna wasn't with me at Iowa. I had a lot of other family at Iowa. Been fortunate having a lot of family with me when I've been able to win. That just makes it special. A couple of them, it was their first time to a race in general. It was their first time to Victory Lane. That's the coolest experience ever. Brownie points all day. That's just easy. Easy Brownie points. That's cool to share it with them, that's for sure. Future family. It's neat to share those experiences and have those memories for many years.

THE MODERATOR: Ryan, congratulations.