Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Hollywood Casino 400 Media Availability — Kansas Speedway
Friday, September 25, 2026
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Kansas Speedway infield media center this afternoon to talk about last weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Blaney comes into the weekend sixth in the Chase standings, 52 points behind leader Kyle Larson.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DOES IT SURPRISE YOU THAT A DRIVER WHO HAS HAD SO MANY RUN-INS WITH OTHER DRIVERS AND DOESN’T SEEM TO HAVE THE RESPECT OF OTHER DRIVERS RESONATES SO MUCH WITH THE FANS? “No. The fans are gonna take a liking to whoever they want and that’s their own opinion. People like who they like. People dislike who they dislike. I can’t tell you why a fan likes a certain person, it’s just that person’s personality that might draw them, or they like their stuff on track, so, no, it doesn’t surprise me. Everybody likes somebody for a reason.
HOW IS YOUR EYE? “It’s fine. I wish it would have healed a little bit quicker than this, but it did not.”
EVERYONE WOULD AGREE IT WAS UNCHARACTERISTIC OF YOU TO BE IN A CONFLICT OF ANY KIND. WAS THAT PURELY BECAUSE OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP STAKES? WAS IT THE TOTALITY OF HOW HE’S RACED EVERYONE? “It was definitely unlike me. I talked on Denny’s show of it’s kind of the opposite of how I normally am. I get fired up quickly, but I calm down really quickly. The other night it just kind of slowly built over the half hour or so, and I think as I look back at what caused me to be so upset to where I would do something like that, so I think it was just a combination of the last month. Darlington went pretty good for us, but we had trouble getting through tech, so that stunk to start that race. Gateway ending the way it did was frustrating after having a really good day and throwing away a lot of points, and then having to start in the back at Bristol from qualifying being rained out after having our issue at Gateway, doing a really good job getting up through there, had a fast car, had our issue on pit road and we fought back from it and then the night ending poorly again, and just realizing how many more points we lost. It just kind of built and things like that. I think there was just a combination of things. In my seat, this Chase hasn’t gone exactly how I thought it was gonna go, just a couple of rough finishes back-to-back and you kind of start realizing like, ‘Man, this is just not going the way I thought it was gonna go.’ And whether it was things that we did. The Gateway thing was kind of just an unfortunate situation. Bristol ending the way it did stunk, and you start realizing like, ‘Man, it’s gonna be really hard to make up those points now, ‘ and this is your season. This is what we’re racing for, so I think all of those just kind of built.”
ARE YOU CONTENT WITH HOW NASCAR IS DECIDING TO POLICE WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU GUYS? “Oh, yeah. I think they made the correct choice not to do anything. It would be one thing, I would fully understand, of getting slapped with a penalty if I went over and initiated a punch or something like that, but in that situation I kind of initiated a confrontation and Carson defended himself, and I’m happy they didn’t do anything. They just kind of let it simmer, so I think it’s the right call in that situation.”
MOVING FORWARD WITH HOCEVAR ON THE TRACK, DO YOU GO BACK TO RACING HOW YOU WERE BEFORE? “I don’t know yet. These things happen. The thing on track happens really, really fast and you making decisions in a split-second of a moment and sometimes you can be skewed or not skewed of what you think happened or what actually happened, and then reflecting on it for a day, watching the incident and talking back with Timmy and stuff like that was like, yeah, pretty 50-50 I thought, just kind of a racing thing of Bristol of two guys being aggressive with the line they wanted to be in, and, yeah, as far as racing around track, like I said on Denny’s thing, he and I really haven’t had a problem in a year or a year-and-a-half or nothing like that. I feel like we’ve raced each other pretty good, so I don’t think there will be really anything different than racing hard in tough moments per usual, but that’s with anybody in certain moments of the race, so I don’t see a big change.”
WHAT SHOULD BE THE DRIVER CODE WHEN YOU’RE BATTLING FOR A WIN LATE IN THE RACE? “Everyone is different. Everyone has a different code – every single driver in the garage. I feel like in that situation I said before it was pretty 50/50 why the contact was there, but I wouldn’t have been, I think a lot of guys in that spot that if someone wasn’t happy with the block or something like that that was pulled of, just run into me in the middle of the corner and move me up two or three lanes and get the spot back and then we’ll go at it again. I think me kind of getting destroyed was something that kind of fueled me a little bit more, but, like I said, everyone is different. People brought up the Joey and Christopher Bell thing that was kind of similar somewhat and that’s how Joey approached it, so everyone is different of what they think is fair or foul or just how they race. It’s the decisions that were made.”
HOW SURPRISED YOU ARE ONLY 52 OUT AFTER THE LAST TWO WEEKS? “Honestly, I thought I would be further with two DNFs. That’s not good, so it’s not unattainable. It’s just gonna be harder to do, but nothing worth doing is ever gonna be easy, so we’re up for the challenge. We’ve still got seven more weeks of this stuff and my guys understand that we can still get there. There’s still a lot of races left. We just have to really put a lot of work in. That just made the job harder, but I feel like that sometimes motivates you even more. Hopefully, we can put our heads down and get some good finishes here.”
YOU HAVEN’T HAD ANY ENEMIES DURING YOUR CAREER. HAVE YOU DONE THAT CONSCIOUSLY SO WHEN THE TIME COMES TO RACE FOR A TITLE YOU’RE NOT RELYING ON WHETHER OR NOT THAT GUY OWES YOU ONE? “To me, my dad beat this into my head when I was a kid. This is how my dad was raised by his dad and that reflected on my dad raising me as a racer of, ‘Hey, here is how my dad raised me from what I think he thought was right and wrong and fair and foul.’ That’s just kind of what my dad instilled in me and that’s how I’ve always just raced, but, like I said, everyone is different. When I look back on that stuff of what Joey said and things like that, yeah, it can come to bite you for sure, but everyone thinks what they’re doing is best. Every single driver thinks their mindset and the way they go about things, ‘This is the best way that I can do it.’ Everyone, like I keep saying, is different. Everyone has different ideals and things like that and the way they go about things, but I’ve just never wanted to make a ton of enemies because, yes, it could hurt me. If you have a recurring enemy and they’re waiting for their moment to cost you something that really is important to you on the racetrack, that stinks. So, I think it’s a combination of how I was raised by my dad and my dad just getting on me if I did something he thought was foul racing late models or something like that I tried to change it and do what I thought was the best thing to do. But, it definitely can hurt you in situations if you make a lot of enemies.”
WAS THERE ANY REACTION FROM ROGER OR ANYONE IN THE FRONT OFFICE? “Roger was fine. He was one of the few people I was worried about disappointing. I don’t want to ever disappoint Roger. I don’t ever want to disappoint Walter, Bud, Jonathan Gibson, Mike Nelson, Travis Geisler. I never want to disappoint those guys on that side. I don’t want to disappoint my guys either, but Roger was very supportive. He was one of the first guys to call me on Sunday morning and it was nice to talk to him. He was at the sports car race, but he got a chuckle or two out of me on a rough morning, so that was really nice to hear his voice and his words of encouragement for me after a night like that.”
HOW DO YOU MEASURE RISK VERSUS REWARD AT THIS POINT AND HAS THAT SHIFTED BECAUSE OF THE OPPORTUNITY TO GAIN SO MANY POINTS QUICKLY WITH A WIN? “I think you go into each weekend with a different mindset depending on where you’re at. You talk about risk and reward. Last week was a great topic to bring up. It’s like, ‘Alright, I could just run third here tonight and have a decent points night and things like that,’ but in the moment you’re like, ‘I’ve got a good shot to win this race.’ We’ve seen what winning the race does, the points benefit. When I went back and rewatched the race, when I was leading I was leading the points, so it’s like, ‘Man, if we can win this race, we might be right in the game or single digits out of it.’ So, you’re always having to measure that stuff and sometimes it doesn’t work out for you if you don’t think you take a big risk, but it ends up being a big detriment. Like the other night, I didn’t think the move I made was a big risky move, it just ended with unfortunate circumstances for our car. So, yeah, I think going forward I would say I’m not gonna take more risk than I normally would. I try to be very calculated with how I take risks or bold moves of things like that, so I think it’s just a balance of having a really good day but also you need to get every point available and you’re always just kind of weighing those options no matter where you are in points.”
YOU ONLY HAVE SEVEN TOP FIVE FINISHES WHILE MANY OF THE OTHERS HAVE 12 OR MORE. DID THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE OTHER NIGHT, AND WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO RUN OVER THIS LAST STRETCH TO CUT INTO THE DEFICIT? “No, the first part of your question I don’t think had anything to do with the other night at all, but where I think we need to finish – well, it starts with finishing. That’s the biggest thing. That has been what we have not done the last couple of weeks, but, I don’t know. These mile-and-a-halves, I’m curious and I’m excited to see where we’re at on the mile-and-a-halves right now compared to the Toyotas, who have been really good. I think we’ve done a lot of work and I think we’ve gotten better, but only time will tell when we get on the racetrack, hopefully tomorrow. I don’t want to start in the back again if qualifying gets rained out, but I’m really curious how these next three weeks are gonna go. It’s gonna be a big three weeks on did we make improvements at these mile-and-a-halves? Can we stay in touch with the Toyotas and a couple of the Chevys that have been fast. So, I don’t know. I don’t really have a number in mind, it’s just going and trying to get stage points, trying to finish top five, racking up high forties to low fifty point days. I think that will be really big. You never know, the Chase has been pretty entertaining so far. There have been a lot of ups and downs by a lot of drivers and we get into this mile-and-a-half stretch I think it’s gonna get even more exciting because places are wider, restarts are gonna be more crazy. You saw restarts at Gateway just be absolutely insane. Here, I think is gonna be just like that on steroids for sure, just because everyone knows what’s at stake. We’ll try to stay out of the trouble and hopefully we’re in front of it all. We’ll see.”
YOU MENTIONED THE WEATHER. HOW CHALLENGING HAS IT BEEN TO COME THROUGH THE FIELD? “I got done saying last week, ‘Oh, the metric is what it is.’ And now I’m starting to slowly hate it like you all for what’s been happening to us. I thought we did a great job last week dealing with starting in the back. I think we got to 20th after starting 29th before the comp yellow, and then did a good call to stay out. I thought our car was good enough to establish track position and then play around with it during that second yellow in the first stage to get some stage points and then flip and stay out and we were able to win the second one, so I thought we handled that really, really well. You never know how each week is gonna go. No matter where you qualify you have to adjust to it and then kind of audible as the race goes on and cautions fall, but it is tough. I mean, pit stall selection is also brutal when you don’t get to pick it or you pick towards the end, especially at these places or tracks to where two tires are really big. Getting wedged in between a couple guys that you’re gonna be racing around all day is always tough, but I feel like we’ve done a good job at what we’ve been given.”
ARE THESE MILE-AND-A-HALVES ALL THEIR OWN ANIMAL OR SHOULD WE LOOK AT THE GUYS WHO HAVE THE OVERALL RAW SPEED AS THE GUYS THAT ARE GONNA BE JUST AS FAST IN LAS VEGAS AND CHARLOTTE? “They’re all unique in their own way, but, at the same time, I think the guys who are gonna be fast this weekend is gonna carry over to Vegas and Charlotte, just the certain speed of a racetrack and things like that, so they get progressively rougher, each track, which is kind of fun. Vegas is rougher than here. Charlotte is rougher than Vegas, but I think your guys who are gonna run good here this weekend are probably gonna run up towards the front at Vegas and Charlotte. I could be wrong, I don’t know, but usually that’s kind of a trend. We talk about short, flat tracks and Penske cars are always really good no matter where they’re at. Everywhere is unique, but you always kind of have a good idea and a baseline setup of where to go, so it definitely wouldn’t surprise me. If they’re good here, they’ll probably be good the next two weeks.”
SOME TRACKS ARE D-SHAPED AND SOME HAVE DOGLEGS. DOES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? “Here is kind of the D-shape and Vegas is kind of the D-shape too and Charlotte is that little dogleg. It does make a little bit of a difference for your entry into turn one. The dogleg at Charlotte, there’s less banking. Your car isn’t loaded as much. The D-shape, it’s kind of loaded all the way down the frontstretch and how you enter turn one, so that’s really the only spot – that entry phase into turn one for a brief moment. But I would say at this track and Vegas, the apron is in play on the frontstretch, so on restarts kind of taking someone three-wide on the apron at Charlotte, you can’t really do that. We’ve seen guys go through the turf, but it’s not like you’re wanting to be down there. So, yeah, I think a little bit of the handling side in it, but then also just the raceability is a little bit more open at these kind of D-shaped front straightaways that have the big apron on the bottom.”
DO YOU HAVE GOOD TICKETS FOR STURGILL SIMPSON TOMORROW NIGHT? “I am going. Johnny Blue Skies is his name now. I’m gonna go with some buddies. I haven’t seen him play in a while, and I’ve never seen him as Johnny Blue Skies, his new stage persona, but I’m excited. I haven’t seen him since I was over in Ireland that last time I saw him was like eight years ago, so I’m excited to see him again and it should be a really good show. I’m a big fan of his no matter what name he goes under.”
HAVE YOU AND JONATHAN HASSLER TALKED AT ALL ABOUT WHAT YOU GUYS DO TO GO FROM SIXTH AND BACK INTO THE STRIKING RANGE? “I think just keep doing what we have been doing. We’ve been doing a great job. I feel like our on-track performance the first three weeks of the Chase has been solid. I feel like we’ve had top five speed in every single one, so you don’t want to change those things that you’re doing well. Is there a few things we can clean up? Always. There’s always some things that we can clean up, whether it’s me behind the wheel, pit road, strategy calls. Everything. You can always pick apart stuff, but I feel like we’ve been doing a great job, so it’s just continuing to do what this group does really well and what I feel like this group does insanely well is the position we’re in right now is just kind of keeping your head down and not letting previous weeks bother you and just continue to move forward and believing in each other week in and week out. It’s business as usual. It’s been a rough couple of weeks, but we’ll just try to get back on track here.”
