It was exactly a year ago that Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney crashed at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. His misfortune on the day had cost him his championship hopes. But this weekend, the #12 driver is back behind the wheel of his Mustang in the exact same spot as then. Entering the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs Round of 8, he has earned for himself a shot at redemption.

After the blistering win at the Talladega Superspeedway put him through to this stage of the contest, Blaney spoke to the media ahead of the race in Vegas. Comparing his challenges thus far with what is to come, the driver was keen on nullifying his past mistakes.

Ryan Blaney admits the hurdle that NASCAR playoffs third round poses despite being as “basic” as the first round

Ahead of the race, Ryan Blaney was one of the two drivers in the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 8 who qualified outside the top 10. He will be placed at P12 on the grid ahead of Denny Hamlin who will start at P15. While starting from behind is a setback, should the day favor Blaney, he will possibly find himself ahead quickly with the help of his fast Mustang. But the journey ahead is not limited to Vegas alone. The three upcoming tracks will provide chances for Blaney to enter the Championship 4. Despite entering the Round of 8 on four occasions in his career, the driver has never made it to Phoenix still in contention for the trophy.

As he prepared himself for the perfect first step in Las Vegas, Blaney talked about what the hurdle was at this stage. Quoting the track similarities between the first and third rounds of the playoffs, he said, “This is like the most, kind of, the most basic round we have right? As far as, like, no superspeedways, no road courses. I mean the first round of the playoffs is fairly basic. I mean honestly, it’s kind of similar really to…. The first round and the third round are kind of similar as far as tracks.”

Though he opined that the track formula was similar, he was clear that the hurdle in this crucial round came in a different form. He continued, “I think this hurdle is like … you might be able to get away with running bad or having a bad race, you know, in the round of 16, round of 12. This one I don’t think you’re going to be able to overcome that hurdle.” Explaining himself, he took the example of his fellow contender, Christopher Bell.

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Learning from the past, Ryan Blaney says that mistakes are costlier now

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Team Penske and Ford haven’t been having the best times of their NASCAR presence this year. After the abysmal performances of Stewart-Haas Racing drivers and the surprise elimination of Joey Logano, the duo are left with only Ryan Blaney to champion them. The #12 driver was a long shot to even enter the Round of 12. But not only did he get that done, but he has also advanced further. Continuing on his answer in the pre-race interview, he talked about how surprises could spring at any moment like they did last year with Christopher Bell.

In 2022, the #20 driver of Joe Gibbs Racing faced a must-win situation in the playoffs. After finishing P34 in Las Vegas and P11 in Homestead-Miami, the driver clinched the victory in Martinsville to enter the Championship 4. The impressive run from Bell was a warning shot for Blaney. He said, “You might, but you just never know and someone could jump up and win. You know I mean I mean the #20 did it last year, right? Have two bad races; Boom! you win Martinsville, you’re in. So I think mistakes are definitely more costly in this one.”

Blaney has got momentum working on his side currently. Having already won a 1.5-mile course in the Coca-Cola 600 earlier this year, he cannot be overlooked at Vegas. He sits 10 points behind the cut-off line to the Championship 4 and can be expected to have a solid run going ahead.

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