Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Teleconference with Ryan Blaney
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion, recorded his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory a few weeks ago at Pocono and is currently in a solid position to make this year’s Playoffs. He was a guest on today’s NASCAR Teleconference, where he spoke about a variety of issues going into Saturday night’s event at Kentucky Speedway.
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – YOU HAVE DOUBLE DUTY THIS WEEKEND. YOUR THOUGHTS? “Yeah, it’s nice to get back to a race track where we’ve been fairly successful at in the XFINITY car and I think our Cup car has actually been really good there, too. We haven’t really got the great finishes, but I feel like we should have gotten them there. I’m excited to get back. I’ve always enjoyed the race track and the atmosphere around it, and with the repave of that place and what they did last year, hopefully it will widen out and we’ll be able to have multiple grooves there, a lot like it used to be, but it’s gonna be nice to get there and try to have a solid run and rebound from Daytona last week, getting caught up in one of the many wrecks there late in the race. We’ll try to put a solid race together and try to build some momentum before the Playoffs start here in a little bit.”
IS IT DEFLATING TO HAVE A GOOD CAR AND THEN GET INVOLVED IN ONE OF THOSE CRAZY CRASHES? “I wouldn’t say it’s deflating, it’s just something that happens. It’s obviously a little disappointing at the time, but that’s the outcome sometimes of speedway racing. I think you just have to look at the positives of it and know that we had a fast car and that’s something to look forward to when we go to Talladega for the Playoffs in a few months. It’s obviously disappointing, but that’s sometimes how those races go. It’s part luck and part skill as far as luck missing all the wrecks that happen. There were a bunch of them Saturday night and missed most of them, but didn’t miss the last one unfortunately. You just have to take the positives out of that and not dwell on it too long. You just have to kind of move forward and you look forward to the next race as soon as you can.”
YOU HAVE A WIN NOW. ARE YOU CONCENTRATING ON STAGE POINTS NOW? “Yeah. I don’t think we’re really doing anything different from what we have done all year before we got the win. You go out and try to win stages and win races just like before and just do what we have been doing all year. I think we’ve done a pretty decent job at it. We’ve won a few stages and won a race, so you’re just trying to keep building your Playoff status and try to cushion everything from each round that carries over. We haven’t really changed anything. You just go try to win races and stages and run up front like we’ve been trying to do all year.”
AS A YOUNGER DRIVER DO YOU FEEL A RESPONSIBILITY OF PICKING UP THE MANTLE FROM THE GUYS WHO HAVE RECENTLY RETIRED? “It’s neat to be a part of that younger group. That’s just nice to be part of the club. There are a lot of great young race car drivers that are coming up from Chase (Elliott) and (Kyle) Larson and Erik Jones and (Daniel) Suarez. They’re doing a great job and it’s just nice to be in that group. In the past few years a lot of drivers have retired who have been big for this sport – from Tony (Stewart) and Jeff (Gordon) and with Dale Jr. retiring this year there’s definitely gonna be some change for sure. I would hope those fans still enjoy the sport and want to pick new drivers, but I don’t really feel like there’s any pressure to take the responsibility. We’re never gonna be a Tony or a Jeff or a Dale Jr. We can be our own people and hopefully the fans enjoy that, but we don’t really talk about it. I just feel like we go try to do our job and hopefully the fans enjoy what we do, whether it’s on the track or off the track and become interested. Like I said, I think it’s a pretty neat time for this sport right now. There are a lot of young drivers coming in with a lot of great drivers who have been around the sport for a long time who are still winning races and competing highly and it’s a pretty neat combination. I think that’s exciting for the fans and exciting for the sport in general. It’s just nice to be a part of it and hopefully we can help grow it and be a part of it for a long time.”
THERE HAVE BEEN TALKS RECENTLY ABOUT ROGER ADDING YOU AS A THIRD DRIVER TO TEAM PENSKE. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? “You know, I don’t really think about that stuff. Yeah, there’s been talks about it for years, really ever since I got with the Penske group, and things just haven’t really come together. I love the Wood Brothers, and driving for them has been really special for me and my family. I couldn’t ask for a greater group of people. But the things I’m mostly concentrated on now is trying to win race 100 for the Wood Brothers. That’s something I would really like to achieve, and I think we can do it. I believe we can really do that. The discussions with what Roger says, yeah, that’s been trying to go on since 2012 ever since I got over there, and we’re just trying to build up that, and I don’t really know what’s going to happen. I’m going to be happy wherever I end up, whether it’s the Wood Brothers or Penske or whatever. I’m really happy with the Ford camp and that family, so we’ll see where everything goes, but I’m more kind of a here‑and‑now kind of guy, and we’re trying to win Kentucky is my main priority, and we’ll go try to do that. But I’m sure we’ll figure something out here soon, but as of right now, I’m just driving the 21 car this year and pretty happy to be where I’m at.”
THE LOU BLANEY MEMORIAL IS SATURDAY NIGHT AND YOU HAVE A TATTOO OF HIS CAR AND NUMBER ON YOUR CHEST. WHY DID YOU DO THAT AND CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR GRANDFATHER? “Yeah. The Lou Blaney Memorial is Saturday night at my dad’s race track up at Sharon Speedway that he’s owned for quite some time, and that’s a pretty special night. It’s unfortunate I can’t make it out there. It’s always a pretty cool night. They have a bunch of drivers out, and it’s always nice to kind of meet everybody from that area where they talk about my dad when he was racing up there, just getting started or my grandpa when he was racing back in the ’70s or really all the way up to the early 2000s. I always like to go to that night. But yeah, the tattoo of him, I’ve got a couple for him, and the first one I got was I think in 2014, just his number on my chest, just something to remember him by, and then last year I got that one a little bit lower on my ribs and stomach. That was a picture of his car from 1970, and it was in black and white, and I figured out all the colors and a good friend of mine did it for me. But I didn’t know my grandfather that well. He passed away in 2009, and I wasn’t old enough to really understand what he did and how long he was around the sport, and that’s why I like going up to Ohio is to hear all the stories about him and where he used to race and all these races he won. He actually got sick even years before he passed away, and I never really got a huge chance to even talk to him then. But he’s the one who really started the whole racing deal in the Blaney family. He got my dad and uncle in it and ultimately got me into racing. I feel like tattoos are something to have meaning, close meaning, and family to me is I think the biggest meaning in life, and something to remember of someone who kind of started this whole thing. I think that was appropriate. But it’s pretty ‑‑ I get a lot of questions about that stuff. But no, that’s nice to ‑‑ the Lou Blaney night is Saturday night, and a shame I can’t be there, but yeah, I know he’s a great person, a good pioneer for dirt racing, and he was the one who started it all, so I thought that was appropriate to get.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHAT KYLE LARSON HAS DONE THE LAST MONTH, JUST EVEN IN A SPRINT CAR? “I mean, it’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely insane what he can do behind the wheel of any race car and his versatility to go from Cup car, XFINITY car to dirt sprint car racing. He does maybe 15 ‑‑ 10 to 15 sprint car races a year — and I think he’s won six in a row now, sprint cars from Outlaws to All‑Stars to Posse stuff. It’s unbelievable. I think that he’s just a super talented race car driver who can jump in anything and go fast and win. I feel like the people who race dirt growing up ‑‑ he would run hundreds of races a year before he got on the NASCAR side, and that’s just ‑‑ you talk about seat time, that’s the ultimate seat time right there is you see people doing double duty, that helps them for a reason and running hundreds of races definitely helps you, to. But it’s unbelievable what he’s been able to do. He’s probably one of the best race car drivers out there right now in the world, and I don’t know anybody who can jump back and forth between series like that or different forms of racing and go win. That’s unheard of. It’s really impressive what he’s been able to do in the last month alone.”
DOES SOMETHING INSIDE EAT YOU UP IN THE FINAL LAPS LIKE POCONO, WHERE YOU’RE TRYING TO HOLD GUYS OFF TO WIN? “It really doesn’t eat me up at all. People were always asking ‑‑ they asked a lot of questions about how nervous were you or things like that, and to be honest with you, you’re not really nervous, you’re just trying to do whatever it takes to try to stay in front of that car and do the best you can to not make a mistake and really just been doing what you have been all day and just trying to run smooth laps. You don’t want to look out the rear view mirror very much, but you do every straightaway you get, just to see if you got a little bit better corner off of that person or maybe they got off the corner a little bit better than you so you can change up something. But you just try to stay as calm as you can and really not get too rattled. I feel like once that happens, your mind kind of isn’t in the right place and then you start making mistakes. You just try to do the best you can, and my team did a good job of kind of reminding me of that and making sure you worry about what’s in front of you rather than behind you.”
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT ON YOUR PODCAST THIS WEEK? “Yeah, it’s been really neat to have that podcast and it take off like it has. I meet fans every single weekend more and more that are listening to it and becoming fans, and that’s really cool. You know, we have fans for driving cars, but when it’s something away from racing and it’s just a podcast where you talk about silly things, that’s pretty special and it makes you feel good, too, that they listen to things that they don’t have to. They don’t have to go out of their way and listen to the nonsense you talk about every week. But they do, and that makes you feel really good, so I can’t thank NASCAR enough for letting us do that. It’s been a lot of fun this year to do with Kim Coon and Chuck Bush. We’re recording one in about 45 minutes, and we’ll put it out today. We usually record on like a Tuesday and then put it out Wednesday, but with yesterday being the 4th, that couldn’t happen. But yep, we’ll have one out today. There’s some things we’ll talk about. We’ll talk about Daytona stuff, and then we have some more things to talk about. I can’t give everything away right now, but I’m sure we’ll find some nonsense to argue about.”
