The NASCAR 2024 Cup Series Championship season finale is set for this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. As the contenders gear up for an action-packed weekend, they met with the media Thursday to share their thoughts.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Ryan Blaney – Team Penske – Reigning Cup Series Champion
If Blaney wins the championship title, he will be the first back-to-back champion under the current format and the first driver to win consecutive championships since Jimmie Johnson (2006-2010).
Blaney was asked how he thinks his team compares with the other three championship drivers he will face in the Playoffs.
“Every one of us is going to say we feel great about our chances and we think we’re the best group, as they should, right? Everyone needs to be confident in their team.
“I can personally say about our group, I feel like we’ve been incredibly strong all year really. I mean, it doesn’t really show how great we’ve been really as a 12 team. It’s easy for me to see it, how they are operating. I feel like it has been just unbelievable.
“This place has been pretty good to us in the past. I feel like our performance at these types of racetracks this year has been really, really strong. Hopefully that continues.
“But yeah, you never know. You never know who has what speed. We’re going to know tomorrow night (during practice) kind of where everyone stacks up.”
William Byron – Hendrick Motorsports
Bryon qualified for the championship after Christopher Bell was penalized for a safety violation (riding the wall) at Martinsville Speedway and is focused on the challenge ahead.
“I haven’t ever felt as bonded to my team as I am now,” he said. “We had a meeting on Sunday night about it. I feel like we’ve turned the page really, really quickly.
“For me personally, I’ve blocked out a ton of the noise. I haven’t looked at social media. I don’t really care. I’m just focused on trying to get the 24 car as fast as I can. I think past experiences have probably helped fuel that where I’ve been through enough BS in my Cup career where I kind of know what to focus on and what to block out.”
“I feel like this place has always been pretty good to me. It’s just trying to figure out those last couple of little steps to be a little bit better. At the same time, I feel like this week through my prep and things, I feel like I found some things that I want to work on in practice. Like I said, it’s always been a really good track for me. It’s just trying to figure out how to make it that little bit better.”
Joey Logano – Team Penske Cup Series
Logano joins teammate Ryan Blaney in the quest for a championship title. If successful, it would be the third consecutive Cup Series championship for Team Penske and Logano’s third championship.
As he looks ahead to the final race of the season, Logano is primarily focused on the team.
“I guess when it comes to individually, I don’t think about it that much,” he said. He continued, “I think of it more of a team ’cause I know what a championship is worth to everybody. I think that matters more. The individual piece of saying you got three of ’em, like that’s great, don’t get me wrong. I think ’cause I’m still doing it, I guess I don’t look at that that much. But I’d like to see the people that I care about at our race team celebrate.”
He also spoke about the “old man” advantage.
“We feel solid about our position. I told everyone we’re going to old man them to death. That’s our goal. That’s our advantage, is that we got the experience over all of ’em. You do something more than once, you get better at it. You do it more than three times, you get better at it. For us, we’ve been able to kind of put together a program to where we know how to prepare and we feel comfortable in these scenarios now.”
Tyler Reddick – 23XI Racing Cup Series
This will be Reddick’s first time in the Championship 4 but he is not as nervous as one might expect. Instead, he says he feels a “sense of ease.”
“In a really good place I feel like mentally going into this weekend,” he said. “We know what’s ahead of us, but not letting it overwhelm us or myself really for that matter. Coming into this knowing what we have in front of us, ready to go out there and get to work.
He summed up his thoughts heading into the championship weekend and the pressure versus the incentive.
“As a competitor, these are the moments you live for, being able to be in this situation, in this position to go fight for a championship. But certainly when I think of Michael, Denny, the rest of the owners, when I think of everyone back at Airspeed, those that travel on the road, dedicate their lives to this goal, certainly it’s good pressure, but you say ‘incentive’, yeah, there’s a lot of that as well trying to get the job done.”
You can tune into the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock with radio coverage provided by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
