Judgment day is at our doorstep. As the NASCAR Cup Series 2024 season enters its last phase, drivers are tense. Especially those whose fates are intertwined with dwindling points. Defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney happens to be one of them, nursing a 38-point deficit. The Team Penske driver gave his all, picked up the white flag, and was sure of a Homestead victory. But the final lap witnessed something thoroughly unexpected last weekend.

So now Blaney can only focus on the Martinsville race. The upcoming Paperclip event will determine the chosen four for the Championship 4 race. As things stand, things look bleak for Blaney who stamped his title berth at the 0.526-mile short track last year. He has had some incredible drives this season but came up short, just like Miami. Yet the No. 12 driver is choosing to calm his nerves heading into the final playoff race.

Ryan Blaney taking a cool approach to battle

Well, after last weekend, the Team Penske driver should technically be biting his nails right now. Ryan Blaney was in position to win in Homestead – he grabbed the lead from Denny Hamlin and passed the white flag. Then, out of nowhere, Tyler Reddick turned up, and Blaney made the wrong defensive move. As a result, Reddick took the high line and sped to victory, leaving Blaney mired deep in a points deficit. That leaves Martinsville as the last resort for the No. 12 driver for a consecutive Bill France Cup. Despite the mountain of hurdles he has to cross, Blaney is calm.

In a pre-race presser for the Xfinity 500, Ryan Blaney explained why Martinsville Speedway is important to him. His home was in High Point, North Carolina, about a 45-minute drive from the Paperclip track where his dad, Dave Blaney, raced. “I always wanted to win here. I grew up really close to here – I always came here to watch Dad a lot as a kid. Yeah, and I always wanted a grandfather clock. So it was big…It’s hard to rank – it’s tough to rank wins. Like I don’t know if anything really beats your first one, just because of how special it is. It’s definitely up there for multiple reasons – being a kid, always wanted to win as an adult and for putting us into Phoenix.”

This year’s prospect for a second grandfather clock in Martinsville looks slim. While his teammate Joey Logano is already locked into the Final Four, Ryan Blaney faces a slew of hungry competitors. Despite that, he is brushing off pressure from his shoulders. “Hey, we try to approach every weekend just like everyone else. I don’t feel stressed, but it’s definitely pressure. But I’m not pulling my hair out over it because hey, it’s all you can do…is the best job, bring your best to the track and run the best 500 laps that you can. So there’s definitely pressure, but really no stress.”

The No. 12 team is also not heaping blame on Blaney for the current state of affairs.

Blaney’s efforts are acknowledged

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The Homestead heartbreak marked the third instance where Ryan Blaney lost the lead of a race within the final two laps. Way back in February, the Team Penske driver lost the lead on the final lap of Atlanta to Daniel Suarez. The latter beat him by the narrowest margin in NASCAR history – 0.003 seconds. Then in June’s Gateway race, victory was sealed for Blaney until his gas tank ran out. His teammate Austin Cindric passed him just before Blaney could take the white flag. And now, at Homestead, Blaney miscalculated which side Reddick would take to advance and left the outside lane wide open.

Despite these heartbreaking slip-ups, the No. 12 crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, cut Blaney some slack. He said, “The guys saw us take the white and they worked hard all week and all year to try to get into the championship race.” But then he admitted to Blaney’s tremendous efforts to come so far. “I think there’s a lot of expectation the guys would maybe be down and disappointed and disappointed in Ryan. But they all realize that Ryan is a big part of obviously what we’ve made it as far as we can. For him to make, maybe a little bit of a mistake is normal and human and we’re all human and we’re all going to continue to fight until the end.”

Although his team’s faith in him is undeterred, Ryan Blaney has an uphill climb before him. It is either replicating another dazzling victory at his home track or losing the 2024 Cup run.