Ryan Blaney reacts to runner-up finish in Phoenix race, Cup Series championship

It appears that Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney are just going to pass the Bill France Cup back and forth to one another. The Team Penske teammates finished 1-2 today at Phoenix in the race and in the NASCAR championship standings.

Joey Logano is now a three-time champion. Ryan Blaney will have to settle for his one championship for now. Jimmie Johnson remains the last back-to-back champion and that was during his five-peat.

After the race, Blaney talked about the runner-up finish.

“Yeah, just worn out and just couldn’t quite get there,” Blaney said after getting out of the car. “I tried really hard to do so. Just restart didn’t really work out and just got too far away from me. It took me a while to kind of pass a couple guys and I just could never get by Joey. I ran out of time. But congrats to him, congrats to the 22 team and Pennzoil and Ford. They put together a great playoffs. You know, we’re happy. If we’re going to race somebody I’m happy it was him for the championship.

“Happy to be one-two for Roger [Penske]. Three in a row for Roger is super amazing, and Ford. But on my side, I hate it for Menards, Advanced Auto Parts, Body Armor, DEX Imaging, Wabash, and Wurth Group. Everybody who really puts a lot of effort into our program and just super fast. Just didn’t quite have enough there at the end. At least a Penske car won it, but yeah, a heck of a battle. Hope the fans enjoyed it and yeah. Hopefully, we’ll come back even stronger next year.”

If Ryan Blaney couldn’t win the championship, at least his teammate did. Has anyone had a better run in motorsports than Roger Penske in the last three years?

Ryan Blaney thought he could make the pass

Another race where it looked like Ryan Blaney was going to run down the leader on the long run. However, it didn’t happen. Had this race been 350 miles instead of 312, then Blaney likely wins if the race goes green to the finish.

But, alas, it was not 350. It was 312. Logano had just enough to hold Blaney off late.

“Oh yeah, I didn’t know. I didn’t know, I um I had to work really hard to get by the 5 [Kyle Larson] and the 24 [William Byron],” Blaney explained. “I didn’t, and Joey was pretty far away and I was working really hard to try to get to Joey. So, I was kind of nervous that if I ended up kind of getting close to him, a lot of my stuff would be burnt off of it, and it kind of was. But didn’t have a choice, I couldn’t really wait. So, I just took too long.

“Just restart didn’t play out for us. I feel like if I came out, you know, behind Joey and didn’t have two cars in between us that I had to pass, I would have been able to have a better shot. But just the restart didn’t work out, that’s just the way it goes sometimes. But so proud of the 12 team for their effort. Really, really happy with our year. And like I said, really happy for Roger Penske and Joey Logano, Paul Wolfe and all those guys. Try to restack and go at it again.”

Ryan Blaney comes up short, but Joey Logano prevails. A 1-2 finish for Team Penske for the first time ever in the championship. That has to be worth something to Blaney and his team.