Ryan Blaney recaps wild Stage 1 at Michigan, decision to stay out after Denny Hamlin caution

Ryan Blaney didn’t get off to the start he wanted in Stage 1 of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan Interantional Speedway, but you can bet he’s pleased with how he ended it.

Blaney took the stage victory after he and his team elected to stay out following Denny Hamlin’s spin on Lap 38. Prior to the caution, Blaney was running P6, but he picked up some valuable playoff points by staying out. Blaney discussed the key decision with NBC Sports during the red flag delay.

“I thought our car was pretty good,” Blaney said. “I didn’t take off pretty good and I kind of struggled early and then I got better halfway through that first stage and got to fifth or sixth, something like that and [crew chief] Jonathan [Hassler] made a good decision to stay out and win the stage, which was good. We’ll pay a little bit of a penalty for it to start Stage 2, but I thought it was good to take that chance and get those playoff points.

“Hopefully our car is good enough to get back through the field. Proud of the Menards Dutch Boy Ford Mustang and hopefully we can continue to tweak on it a little bit because our speed’s pretty good.”

Ryan Blaney continuing to improve as season rolls on

Blaney, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, entered Sunday’s race fifth in the points standings with two victories to his name (Iowa, Pocono). Much of the focus has been on getting better results on intermediate tracks. Pocono was an example of the progress they’ve made which has carried over to Michigan.

“I definitely feel we’ve made huge steps in that department and it’s a huge testament to the hard work from men and women at our race shop,” Blaney said. “They work their butts off to figure out how to be better and they did that at Indy and Pocono and brought a lot of that stuff here. I think it’s paid off. … Hopefully we can get our car to Victory Lane and make a lot of people at Team Penske proud.”

Blaney’s bid to get back to Victory Lane will have to wait until Monday, as NASCAR announced that racing on Sunday has come to a close due to rain. The FireKeepers Casino 400 will pick back up at 11 a.m. ET Monday with 149 laps to go.