If you can’t beat ’em, learn from ’em. Ryan Blaney outqualified Shane Van Gisbergen on Saturday by a razor-thin 0.033 seconds to grab the pole for Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen.
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But Blaney was quick to admit afterward that just because he’ll lead the field to green Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen International doesn’t mean he has an advantage over the New Zealand road course specialist.
“I think it’s the first time he and I have raced together on a road course and side by side,” Blaney said Saturday during media availability at the track. “People ask me all the time, they’re like, ‘What does Shane do when you’re out there running that he’s doing so much better?’
“I was like, ‘Man, I don’t really race with him much. He’s so far ahead. I don’t ever see what he’s doing to be so much faster.’ Yeah, you look at data and stuff, but it’s just going to be neat.”
Of Blaney’s 14 career wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, only one victory has been on a road course (Charlotte Roval in 2018). And as for Watkins Glen, he has one top-five and three top-10s in eight starts.
Blaney doesn’t have any preconceived notions that he’s going to kick van Gisbergen’s butt in the race. More than likely, it’ll be the other way around. Even his best friend, fellow Cup driver Bubba Wallace, doesn’t have a whole lot of faith in Blaney besting SVG.
“Bubba actually came up to me after qualifying and said, ‘Congrats, but now he’s going to make you look really bad,’” Blaney said. “So I was like, ‘Hey, one day at a time. I beat him one day.’ Tomorrow is going to be a lot different and more difficult task for sure.
“It’s nice to qualify well. Obviously qualify next to Shane and his talents and at some point of the race, hopefully we are racing each other to where I can maybe pick up a few things like seeing it with my own two eyes in front of me.
“A lot of it is stuff you can’t see, like it’s in the car that he does. But I think maybe seeing some of the stuff from my seat, I might be able to learn from that. Whenever you can learn from the best guys out there, and obviously he is the very best at the road course stuff, it’s always nice. I try to take all that and absorb it.”
Whether Blaney schools SVG or gets schooled himself, Sunday will be the real test and class will be in session when the green flag drops.
