Ryan Blaney Credits NASCAR’s Real “Rockstars” in Mexico, Calls for Key Changes Before Future Return

Team Penske's Ryan Blaney (12) picked up his second win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series in Sunday's The Great American Getaway 400 at the Pocono Raceway on July 14, 2024.

The 2023 Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney, had a quiet visit to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez last Sunday. He displayed tremendous speed in the two opening stages and held position in the top five. But he fell off the ladder in the final stage to settle for a 14th-place finish. Regardless of the result, he was left impressed with the historic weekend that NASCAR had in Mexico City.

Planning and executing an international event on such a large scale is not an ordinary task. From the suits in the Daytona headquarters to the last-level employee in the garage, everyone was overworked and drained from the attempt. But one set of people whom Blaney particularly wants to laud are the hauler truck drivers.

On a recent episode of the Rubbin is Racing podcast, he was asked if NASCAR ought to bring in a break after international races in the future. There was a break this season following the Cup Series race at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The host pitched the idea of moving this little breather to after tiring international visits, and Blaney loved hearing it.

He used the example of the truck drivers to add strength to the contention. He said, “I would like to see maybe a week off after an international event, just to give everybody a little bit of a breather. Time to reset mostly. The truck drivers, I mean, those guys are rockstars! I don’t know how they do it. How many miles do they put under their belt traveling every single weekend?”

The drivers and the crew returned to the United States on Monday night, Blaney confirmed. This would have typically resulted in there not being enough time to put together a car for the race in Pocono. But every team had already anticipated the narrow clock and worked on their rides beforehand.

Can Blaney secure victory at the Pocono Raceway?

Pocono is where Blaney recorded his first Cup Series victory back in 2017. He comes back to the Tricky Triangle eight years later not only as the track’s defending Cup Series winner, but also as one of the sport’s most popular heroes.

He is THE man to be wary of when the field races at Pocono on Sunday. With one win and six top-5 finishes, he stands seventh on the current points table.

Notably, he has 11 top-12 finishes in 15 races at the track. If history is anything to go by, it can be said with certainty that he has a great result awaiting him.

He told the press about an advantage he might have due to past performances, “It’s always nice to go back to places that you’ve had success at. Things change from year to year and week to week, but when you have success at tracks you’ve won at pretty recently, you have a pretty decent notebook to use.” The race awaits the Cup Series champion.

Post Edited By: Srijan Mandal
Ryan Blaney

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Gowtham Ramalingam

Gowtham is a NASCAR journalist at The SportsRush. Though his affinity for racing stems from Formula 1, he found himself drawn to NASCAR's unparalleled excitement over the years. As a result he has shared his insights and observations by authoring over 3000 articles on the sport. An avid fiction writer, you can find him lost in imaginary worlds when he is not immersed in racing. He hopes to continue savoring the thrill of every lap and race together with his readers for as long as he can.

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