Not many people were favoring Ryan Blaney to win the championship, but when the checkered flag dropped in Phoenix on Sunday, Blaney was the champion. Now, it’s worth mentioning that the #12 driver didn’t have that blitzing of a season, especially compared to two of his final 4 competitors. So what went right for the Team Penske driver? Denny Hamlin might have an answer for just that.
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During a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, Hamlin discussed the odd case of Blaney’s championship run, which got into full throttle not that long ago. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver used the example of Ben Rhodes, the Truck Series winner who went from “surviving” and getting the most out of his day to running well and winning the championship in Phoenix. “Same with (Ryan) Blaney. You gotta just be good at Phoenix now,” Hamlin claimed.
“Is that the new riddle to winning a championship?”
This prompted Hamlin’s co-host Jared Allen to chime in with, “You gotta be good in the final 4 races. You gotta get to 8 and be good in the last 4 races.”
“It appears that riddle works. It’s just focus on a couple races,” Hamlin added.
Denny Hamlin wonders if Blaney would’ve been champion away from Phoenix
At one point in this conversation, it was mentioned to Hamlin how Ford, despite winning 8 races in the Cup, 5 in Xfinity, and 6 in the Truck Series, ended up winning all three titles. This led to Hamlin wondering if Phoenix in particular had a big role in Blaney’s glory considering how good Penske cars have been on that track historically.
“If you take them to somewhere else maybe it’s a different outcome,” Hamlin claimed.
But the #11 driver also touched upon just how good Blaney was in the last 5 races of the season. He added, “It was a game changer when he showed up in the round of 8, and really the last couple of races around 12 he was starting to come on and the next thing you know it’s like, ‘Whoa where did he come from?’”
Hamlin then recalled an earlier conversation on his show when they spoke about the lack of speed when it comes to the Fords. “What’s interesting is that #22 has not shown any speed. There’s usually not a gap between the two,” he said.
In the end, Hamlin was of the opinion that either Ryan Blaney “stepped up his game” and got a lot better or the cars got better, emphasizing that it was the last 5 races that won him the championship.
