Ryan Blaney went through 'a lot of emotions' throughout DQ process
For the first time since he was disqualified, and then had it rescinded, Ryan Blaney has spoken out about last week’s wild ride. The Team Penske driver went from 17 points under the cutline to 56 points back to 17 points. The NASCAR Playoffs are wild.
Ryan Blaney doesn’t have to win the race this weekend to advance. However, he might have to win one of these last two to make the Championship 4. 17 points is a big hill to climb this late in the Round of 8.
Before practice and qualifying at Homestead-Miami, Blaney opened up about how it all went down last week.
“Definitely not ideal Sunday when I heard the news,” Blaney told the media, via Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “We talked about it internally Monday morning as a group kind of before we went to NASCAR and was able to talk with them. I appreciate NASCAR for being receptive to it and just talking with us Monday and kind of meeting with the parts at the R&D Center, understanding what was the disconnect between prerace, postrace, you know that’s a sealed part.
“Elton Sawyer and Brad Moran they were really great to us of just being understanding and understanding there was an issue there kind of the process and they were able to fix it. Yeah a lot of emotions but it was nice that it ended up as it should have been.”
Ryan Blaney talked about what he needs to do to advance.
“56 points, now you gotta win the race. 17 you can do it on points, it’s still going to be hard I still think we probably gotta win one of these things being 17 out, unless guys have some problems you never know.”
Ryan Blaney hoping to perform at Homestead-Miami
Starting early in the morning with practice, this Homestead track is only going to get hotter. Sunday afternoon, the track will be nice and warm and these cars are going to have to figure it out on the track. Well, the drivers will have to figure out the cars on the track, that is.
For Ryan Blaney, practice and qualifying have gone really well. He’s going to get a top-10 spot for this race, if he doesn’t wreck in the final qualifying round. He advanced from Group A with the fifth fastest time in that session.
This weekend is major. We’ve seen drivers, even Blaney, let moments slip through their fingers in South Beach. We saw his teammate Joey Logano end up in the inside wall after sliding and losing his tire grip. He tried to run the inside lane like Kyle Larson was doing and it didn’t work out.
Ryan Blaney has his points back, a fast Ford Mustang, and a pocket full of hope. He’s going to try and put this No. 12 Ford into victory lane and punch his ticket to Phoenix.