With his win at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March, Ryan Blaney qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
The victory has taken on even greater significance for the driver of the No. 12 Ford.
Blaney’s results have been rather quiet over the last 14 races since his victory, owing to Team Penske’s lack of raw speed compared to Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. During this time, his best finish was fifth in the first race at Pocono Raceway.
And while he’s successfully avoided bad results – a wreck at Nashville Superspeedway is his lone DNF over the span – Blaney is delighted to have that victory in his pocket as the series returns to Atlanta this Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
Blaney acknowledged Penske’s lack of performance over the summer and his own need to “tidy things up from (his) side, from pit road side.” during a media conference on Friday.
Now, he considers Sunday as an opportunity to gauge where his No. 12 team stands with only six races remaining before the playoffs begin.
“… I wish that we could have more (wins),” he said. “You obviously want more and to be running a little bit better, but hopefully, I think this weekend will be a really good idea to see where we stack up.
“(We’re) going back to a place where we won at and was really competitive — to kind of see where we stack up now with us probably thinking we need a little bit of speed, just kind of seeing.
“I think we’ll be good. Hopefully, we can have a really good run and find out where we end up.”
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Blaney is a respectable eighth in the Cup playoff rankings entering Sunday, but he only has eight playoff points in hand. Kyle Larson, who beat Blaney to win in Atlanta in March, is leading the series with 32 playoff points.
Blaney says he’s trying not to look ahead for opportunities to gain more, but he understands the need of pursuing them.
“I just try to take it week to week and focus all of your attention on this race and I think that’s how I’ve been able to maximize (my) focus for each race,” Blaney said. “We’ll start with Atlanta. Hopefully, it’s a good spot for us and we’ll go from there.
“We need to start getting more stage points, playoff points and all that stuff. Those never hurt and we’ve got to get back on top of that.”
Another thing that wouldn’t hurt? Having another car similar to the one he had in Atlanta in March.
Blaney credited his victory to his car’s ability to run effectively in various lanes on Atlanta’s worn-out surface, but especially up against the wall in Turns 3 and 4.
With nine laps to go, he believes that was the difference in him successfully tracking down and passing Larson for the lead.
“Let’s say, I was kind of slowed up behind a car or something like that – I could bail to the top and get in some clean air and actually able to make lap time up there,” Blaney said. “You don’t want to do that every lap, but that’s something I really remember and hopefully we’ll have that again.
“Because you don’t see that a ton with people running the top that much in (turns) 3 and 4 (at Atlanta) but that option was there for me and I hope I can have that again, just to be able to go up there if you get the lap traffic or you’re trying to pass somebody that you’re racing. That was big for our group.”
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