Yahoo Autos Cup champ Blaney happy playing defense: ‘I think that’s motivated us a lot’
Ryan Blaney has been the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion since February, but beginning Sunday afternoon, he’s now on championship defense.
But the Team Penske driver doesn’t feel that makes him a target.
“I’ve gotten wrecked a lot this year, more than other years, so I don’t know if that means I have a bullseye on my back,” Blaney said with a laugh earlier this week. “I don’t think it’s intentional; it just seems that way. But no (target on us). I feel like we’ve kind of taken it as we have to defend our championship.
“We’re still in title defense — until the year is over and you don’t win it, you’re still in title defense. So, I think that’s motivated us a lot — everyone is kind of gunning for you. … Everybody is envious of where you’re at, and everyone wants to take it away from you, and they want the outside to stop talking about you being the champ. They want to be that. I was the same way before we won the championship.”
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Blaney won the championship in his first Championship 4 appearance. It happened in his eighth full Cup Series season and he became the lowest-seeded driver, from the No. 12 position, to win the championship in the elimination era.
The No. 12 team finds it motivating to be the ones chased or the ones with all the eyes on what they’re doing. Blaney wants it known how good his group is, and he also wants to make sure they remember themselves by delivering that message before another postseason begins.
“I want to scare every other team,” Blaney said. “I want you guys to be so good that everyone is nervous about us when we unload, and that’s kind of the mindset we’ve tried to have because I think that’s a great mindset for everyone on the team. You want everyone worrying about you because you can be that dangerous, and I think we definitely are. Hopefully that carries over.”
It was hard to argue that Blaney and his team weren’t peaking at the right time when the regular season ended. Blaney won two of the final 10 races and had five top-10 finishes. He also led 286 laps in that stretch.
Blaney was sixth in the championship standings after Darlington Raceway. He was reseeded fifth with 18 playoff points.
There is no denying that Blaney and the team are much better prepared for a playoff run this year than in 2023.
“I said it a couple of months ago, I thought our group was in a great spot,” he said. “Mentally, performance-wise, whether that’s on pit road (or) that’s on the racetrack, I feel like we’re really good. I thought this time last year we were kind of scrounging to figure out how are we going to perform how we need to because we were off a little bit and this year, I think we’re in a much better spot. So, hopefully, we can continue to bring that same pace and continue to learn at the pace that we’ve been bringing the last few months.
“But yeah, this group is in a way better spot. I think we as a whole, too, as a Team Penske, are in a much better spot as well. Hopefully that means a lot for all three of our cars and (Harrison Burton) to make a good run at it.”
