Ryan Blaney won his first NASCAR Cup Championship last year after a decade in the Cup Series. He has experienced his share of ups and downs with just 12 wins under his belt so far. But despite the mixed journey, the #12 Team Penske driver remains in the hunt for a second championship this season.
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Although Blaney confessed that he ‘lost some sleep’ over the Homestead race last weekend, on a more generic note, ahead of the Martinsville race, the #12 driver shared insights into how he handles setbacks. He explained, “I’ve just tried to move on from them quicker. I feel like it gets easier as you get older and you are in those scenarios more.”
“You’re gonna lose races that you feel like you should have won – woulda, shoulda, coulda kind of deals… I used to stew over that stuff for a long time when I was younger and I’ve just learned to let it go after you’ve learned. You can’t just throw it out the window like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ You’ve got to learn from that stuff,” he elaborated.
Blaney also lauded his #12 team for their ability to rebound from setbacks. He admitted that dealing with losses has been a tough but crucial part of his career development. According to him while getting stuck or not winning the races can be a tough pill to swallow, over the years, he has honed the ability to manage the disappointment, and it gets easier with time.
So far this season, out of 35 starts, Blaney has won two races, landed in the top-5 ten times, and finished in the top-10 seventeen times. Sporting an average finish of 15.85, he’s getting ready for this Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway.
Blaney’s outlook towards the Martinsville race
Blaney will be eyeing to repeat his last year’s success at Martinsville, where he won the Xfinity 500 race that catapulted him into the Championship 4 at Phoenix. In a recent pre-race media session, Blaney reflected on his journey to becoming a tough contender at Martinsville Speedway.
He said, “Martinsville used to be a place kind of up until the fall of 2017 that I really struggled at. I couldn’t really figure it out and just could never get the timing as a driver that I needed to for there, and then in that Fall of ‘17 race with the Wood Brothers it just kind of clicked… I kind of know now what I need to be competitive here,’ and that’s just gotten better year in and year out.”
Now with a clearer strategy derived from practice and race experience, Blaney, who is currently 7th in the standings trailing by 38 points, will approach Martinsville confidently, backed by an impressive track average finish of 8.8.
