NASCAR’s Ryan Blaney Explains Why His Start to Cup Series Season Is ‘Really Good’ (Exclusive)

Ryan Blaney has yet to win a NASCAR Cup Series race. But in the early stages of the season, Blaney is in a good position to win the Cup Series title as he is currently in second place in the standings behind 2020 Cup Series Champion Chase Elliott. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Blaney explains why his start to the Cup Series is “really good” for him and the team. 

“Yeah, it’s been a pretty decent start to the year for us, and that’s really, really good because started with a new crew chief this year,” Blaney exclusively told PopCulture. “That’s been nice to get started on the right foot and learning this new car, it’s huge changes, the biggest changes we’ve ever had in the sport. It’s nice that we’ve had speed. It’s a shame that we haven’t won a race yet, even though I feel like we’ve been in contention for a couple and just haven’t been able to close them out, but I think it’s been a good start to the year. It’s just a matter of continuing to learn and learning faster than other teams. That’s the tough part of it. But I’ve been proud of the effort so far. I’ve just got to keep on going.”

One of the big reasons Blaney is second in the Cup Series standings is the way he has performed in the last month. The 28-year-old has finished seventh or better in the last four races, and he also finished fourth in the Dayton 500. Last week, Blaney finished fifth in the Food City Dirt Race in Bristol, Tennessee. 

“I think the best thing you can do is every week you sit back and say, ‘Okay, what did we do good this weekend? What are the spots we need to improve on, and how do we fix those spots?’” Blaney said about the keys to winning his first race of the season. “And that’s the biggest thing is just trying to prepare yourself and your team to the best of their abilities every single week and continuing to run up front, leading laps, winning stages, finishing top five. If you can continue to do that and your car has that speed, I think it’s going to eventually happen for you, right? It just happens. But you have to have speed first, and then all those other things come.”

On Sunday, Blaney and the NASCAR drivers will be in Lincoln, Alabama for the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Blaney has success at Talladega, winning two races in his last five starts. But this year’s race presents an interesting challenge. “We don’t have any practice this weekend,” Blaney explained. “You have to really focus on Daytona really. Atlanta, we had the speedway package, but it’s a pretty different race, I feel like. But going to Talladega, I feel like it’s always more aggressive than Daytona. It’s wider. Feels like the corners are longer, so you can run through wide a little bit more. Your car just handles better at Talladega than Daytona.”