Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ryan Blaney Media Availability | Saturday, October 21, 2023
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang, met with media members at Homestead Miami Speedway ahead of Saturday practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1. Blaney addressed the emotions surrounding the end of the Las Vegas race, his prospects for advancing into the Championship 4 and more.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Ford Mustang — “We talked about it internally Monday morning as a group before we went to NASCAR and was able to talk to them. I appreciate NASCAR for being receptive to it and talking with us Monday and meeting with the parts at their R&D Center and understanding what the disconnect was between pre-race and post-race. That is a sealed part, so. Elton Sawyer and Brad Moran were really great to us at being understanding and understanding that there was an issue there with the process and they were able to fix it. A lot of emotions but it was nice that it ended up, I think, as it should have.”
WERE YOU CONFIDENT IT WAS GOING TO END THE WAY IT DID? “I don’t know. It is out of your control. I don’t know the whole inspection process. I am not there for that. So me trying to learn about where the issue was and all that stuff was a little bit difficult for me. I was more getting information from Jonathan and Travis Geisler and stuff like that. When I heard about all the parts and pieces before they went to NASCAR, I felt like maybe they would be able to hear our case and work with us and figure out where was this disconnect. Luckily it was. I wouldn’t say I was confident or unconfident, I was just hoping to see what happens I guess.”
WHAT WAS THE RANGE OF EMOTIONS? “It really didn’t change a ton for me. We had a good day at Vegas. It stinks we had a good day and lost points, so that kind of stinks. Then we lost a lot more points that evening. I flew on someone else’s plane and right when I turned my wifi on, that was the first text I got, that we got DQ’d. So then it was like, ‘Okay, we have to win one of the next two weeks.’ Then when it got rescinded on Monday night, it was just about that it would still be hard to make it but it isn’t a must-win now. So it gives you a little more hope. I wasn’t like distraught or anything. That was the spot we were in and had a job to do, but now it is just a change a little bit.”
WHAT ABOUT THE MENTAL MINDSET THAT YOU CAN HAVE A GREAT RUN AT A TRACK AND LEAVE LOSING POINTS IN THE PLAYOFF BATTLE? “That is what the Round of 8 is. There are so many guys that run in the top 10. It is so hard to gain your ones and twos there and it is easy to lose them. Especially when you are coming in behind the eight ball already into the Round of 8 and you have guys that you know you are going to be racing with those guys unless they have problems. They aren’t going to go run 15th. It is super tough. You have to perform. This is the round and I don’t expect anything different from this round. You have to go out there and do your job.”
HOW OFF THE CHAIN DO YOU THINK MARTINSVILLE IS GOING TO BE? “It could be wild. I think that race always gets exciting. Last year’s race was incredibly exciting, the ending of it. We were a part of it. We sniffed it. I think Martinsville being the last cut-off race is more exciting than when it was the first one of the Round of 8. I think it puts on a great show regardless and you will have some guys that need a win when they get there or guys who are a handful of points out. it is going to be wild. This one will be just as crazy because those races always are.”
THE FACT YOU ARE SO GOOD ALWAYS AT MARTINSVILLE, DOES THAT GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE GOING IN? “Martinsville has been a good track for us. I feel like we do really well there. We haven’t won there but I feel like we should have won there a few times. It is just hard to put it together. It gives you confidence going in. Qualifying good there is really important now, which is unfortunate, but you have to qualify good. The Chastain thing last year, I saw glimpses of it in my mirror and didn’t know what the heck was going on. Watching the replay after it didn’t look real. It looked fake to me. I saw it in the mirror and didn’t know what it was. I found out shortly after what it was and it was pretty unique. Something you will never see again.”
WHAT WERE THE EMOTIONS LIKE FOR THE PERSON ON YOUR TEAM THAT DEALS WITH THE SHOCKS? “Yeah, it is a few different people that determine those. We have a shock guy, that is his job and he works with the crew chief and engineers on what we are doing. Marcus is our shock guy and his emotion was, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what is going on.’ We were good to go in practice and now we are failing after having a good day. Marcus was upset for sure but everyone is a part of it, it is a team deal. He wasn’t too beat up about it. He understood I think what we wanted to talk to NASCAR about, so he was fine.”
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE FOR YOU OF BEING 56 POINTS OUT TO BEING UNDER 20 POINTS OUT? “If you are 56 points out you have to win a race. 17, you can do it on points but it is going to be hard. I still think you probably have to win one of these things unless some guys have problems, you just never know. Here you can have problems. Running the wall you can break some stuff pretty easy. You just go race, and do the best you can. You try to run up toward the front. I thought last week was the best mile-and-a-half speed we have had since Charlotte, so that was encouraging. Hopefully, we can keep building on that. It is a little better when you are a little closer in points.”
YOU WERE RUNNING THIRD HERE LAST YEAR BEFORE YOU SPUN OUT. IS THERE CONFIDENCE THAT YOU CAN PUT TOGETHER A CAR TO UNLOAD WITH WHAT YOU NEED TO GET A WIN? “I hope so. I would like to rely on past races here and having good runs but you can never fully count on that. It is good to have a baseline, but things change over the course of a year so much with everything. It is nice to have a baseline and it gives you some confidence but you can’t really rely on it. You have to be willing to try new things you have learned this year that have helped you. It definitely doesn’t hurt but I am not thinking that we were running third last year and will definitely be top-five this year. You have to keep an open mind when it comes to that.”
WAS THE TWITTER STUFF WITH YOU AND BUBBA (WALLACE) THIS WEEK REALLY YOU? “It was 100% real. He started it. I didn’t see his tweet on the Monday. I don’t really get on there too often. My PR guy does most of it. But that was me. I shot one and he pulled out a bigger gun and shot back and then I pulled out a rocket launcher and shot back. it was funny. I like how people thought we were being serious but we were joking around. That is the kind of friend you want to have … that you can bust up like that.”
WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP LIKE OFF THE TRACK? “Bubba and I have known each other for 20 years. We grew up together and we have been great friends for a long time. It is one of those relationships where you have known someone for decades and you are comfortable with busting them up every now and then and you laugh about it afterwards. We called each other that night and wanted to go to dinner but he had something he had to do, but we were laughing at the responses of people on Twitter. I am lucky to have a good friend in him and it works both ways.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE LOOSE RELATIONSHIPS LIKE THAT WITH OTHER DRIVERS TO BE ABLE TO MESS AROUND AND STILL BE COOL IN THE GARAGE WITH THEM? “You have to separate it, right? It is a job at the end of the day and our livelihood but you have to be able to have fun with it and also know when to be serious with it. You have to be fun to an extent and be able to let loose a little bit but then when it is time to turn it on, you turn it on.”
WHO HAS THE BETTER GOLF GAME? “I am a little better than him right now but it goes in waves.”
WHO HAS WON THE MOST MONEY? “On the golf course? I think we are probably even right now. It just goes in a pot and evens itself out eventually.”
DID NASCAR SEND A MESSAGE LAST WEEK BY PENALIZING TWO DRIVERS FOR LAYING BACK AND DOES THAT IMPACT HOW YOU WILL DO RESTARTS GOING FORWARD? “They have been talking about that for a while and have been kind of mentioning it for a little bit in our drivers deal. I think they got somebody at the Truck race at Talladega for it and got a couple guys last week. I saw one replay of the situation. I think it is important, especially when you get the sixth or seventh row back, laying back is so huge because it stacks and you can make a run three-wide easy. I think it is good and you need to enforce those rules if you are going to talk about them otherwise guys are going to keep doing it. So I think you are going to see it be a little more tidy because two guys did get popped last week for it and when you do that, people stop. I think that was good that they addressed that.”
YOU ARE THE SECOND DRIVER TO SAY YOU HAVEN’T LOOKED AT BOTH REPLAYS YET. THAT KIND OF SURPRISES ME. DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS GOOD? “You know when you are in the gray area when you are laying back and not. If you are back a car length plus into the restart zone, then you are laying back and they are going to probably catch that. Before, that was pretty normal and you would normally do that. Now that they are looking at that and watching it, you are going to be half a car length from somebody and can’t really do that. You understand when you are laying back. Drivers know what they are doing.”
HAVE YOU GOTTEN COMFORTABLE RUNNING THE WALL HERE? “This is a place where you are going to have two or three guys that are super good at it. Larson is ridiculous here at it. Reddick runs really good here at it. Then you will have one or two other guys that kind of pop in and can rip the fence pretty good right on it. But you have to make it work off the fence too. I think it depends on what your car is doing and a lot of it is confidence in how well you can run it. I think Larson runs it no matter what his car is doing just because he is really good at doing it. I like to think that I am pretty decent at it. I am not Larson level, not even close, nobody is. I am fairly confident though and I am more about getting my car working to what I need it to do to run up on that fence. A couple of guys that are super good at it will work their driving style around that to be able to run the fence. Everyone is a little different. I think you have to be good at it because there is obviously speed up there but you have to be good off of it because if everyone is running the fence you have to go somewhere and pass them somewhere. You have to work on all that stuff during practice.”
ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE CHANCES UP THERE RUNNING THAT LINE? “If we were still 56 points back I would be glued to it. During practice and during the race, I would be glued to the damn thing. Now it just depends. You understand what spot you are in. If you are having a good day and coming down to the end of the race or so, maybe you don’t plant it on the fence. Maybe you have gotten a good amount of points and running top five, you are assessing risk at that point. Larson will be dangerous because he is already in. He will be planted on the fence. It is just about the spot you are in at the time.”
