Ryan Blaney secured his first win of the season in Phoenix last Sunday and was one of the fastest drivers on the track. But it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing for the Team Penske driver, who had to fend off Christopher Bell’s challenge expertly to reach Victory Lane.
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Blaney had to be at his best against Bell, and his defense was praiseworthy, especially because the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had four fresh tires after the final restart. Furthermore, Bell had also led 176 laps, which made for a nervy finish.
In an interview with Eric Estepp, Blaney detailed how he held Bell off in those final moments. He began by clarifying that whichever of them was running second likely couldn’t have passed the leader if they had both been on equal tires. They were simply too evenly matched. But what made the difference was track position.
Bell‘s crew had decided to change all four tires on his car during the final restart. Blaney, meanwhile, opted for a two-tire change. This resulted in Bell losing some time, and he restarted the race from eighth place.
Blaney said, “When I got the lead, I knew where he was. I knew he was fourth. So, the biggest thing that was on my mind was how I could create a gap. Like, I only have x amount of time before two tires start fading. Um, so I need to build this gap as big as I can.”
When Bell raced up to second place, Blaney had told himself that he still had a gap of a second. That meant he could give up a tenth of a second every lap and not more than that. He also had to make sure that he didn’t make any mistakes that would cost him time.
He continued, “The biggest thing for me was just not to have like a blowup corner. Like, don’t miss the corner. Don’t have a big moment and let him gain a chunk of time. So I was okay giving up a tenth of a lap to him to make sure I hit my marks like correctly and didn’t have a big slip-up moment.”
His Ford Mustang had been good enough to hang on to the lead and keep Bell at bay. However, the difference between them was a mere 0.399 seconds when they crossed the checkered flag. Bell could have closed that gap further and even made a race-winning pass if he had had a few more laps in his corner. But the day was Blaney’s.
