TALLAGEGA, Ala. \u2014 Ryan Blaney finds himself 31 points below the cutline with two races remaining in the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for the 2023 champion those races are a tracks \u2014 Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway \u2014 where Blaney has enjoyed success in recent years.<\/p>\n
Blaney\u2019s No. 12 Team Penske Ford cut a tire early in last week\u2019s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and thrust him into comeback mode for the final two races of the round.<\/p>\n
Still, Blaney, who has thrived in must-win situations in past Playoffs, does not yet feel that desperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt stinks where we are on points, but we\u2019ve still got two races left and I don\u2019t personally think we are in a must-win quite yet,\u201d Blaney explained to the media on Wednesday.\u00a0\u201cAt Talladega, you never know what can happen.\u00a0You can go have a massive points day and be short of the win, but maybe a couple other guys don\u2019t have as good of a points day and you go into Martinsville maybe in a spot where you could point your way in if you go have another good day short of winning.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur prep is really no different.\u00a0It\u2019s how do we try to be efficient through the stages and gather up all the stage points.\u00a0That could change.\u00a0Let\u2019s say the first two stages don\u2019t go our way and, alright, maybe now it\u2019s a must-win type scenario.\u00a0That might switch up a little bit, but as far as our prep this week, it\u2019s kind of business as usual and try to go gather the most points we can and go try to figure out a way to win the race, so pretty similar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blaney has confidence heading into this weekend at Talladega\u2019s 2.66-mile track and the short track at Martinsville the week after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the next two tracks, for sure.\u00a0We\u2019ve definitely had a great track record at those two, and I think we can go into either one of those and run well and hopefully compete for the win, but that\u2019s kind of everywhere,\u201d Blaney said.\u201d\u00a0I have so much faith in this team with the guys that I\u2019ve got working around me and the level of trust in each other, I just love going to the races every single weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely nice when you\u2019re in that spot, so hopefully we can dig into some previous success and experiences that we\u2019ve had and can lean on those the next two weeks and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like this:<\/p>\n
Like Loading…<\/p>\n