There has still never been a back-to-back champion in the 11-year history of the NASCAR Cup Series elimination playoff format but it wasn’t for a lack of effort or preparation from Ryan Blaney, Jonathan Hassler and the Penske No. 12 team.
They simply got beat by their teammates, Joey Logano, Paul Wolfe and the No. 22 team. The difference was .33 of a second. Blaney got there, tried every line possible, and just could not find by.
“I was tired, man,” Blaney said in his post-race press conference. “I was driving hard and huffing and puffing and felt like I was going to pass out after the race. I was working hard trying to close the gap down. There were a lot of similarities to last week (at Martinsville) and just didn’t quite get there this week.”
Blaney restarted fifth, behind Logano, and watched as his teammate made a daring move around everyone in front of him on the final restart with 54 laps to go. Blaney got bogged down in the traffic between them and didn’t get to second until 20 laps to go but burned up his rear tires trying to get there.
That is to say nothing of the dirty air and the defensive line that the likes of William Byron, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Logano all subjected him too.
“Everybody put on defensive clinics today, everybody I tried to pass,” Blaney said. “Everybody did. So, props to them for that. They did a great job.
“It’s just what you have to do. I mean, the 5 did it to me, the 24 did it to me, the 22 did it to me. It’s just what you’ve got to do if you’re struggling, and it just buys you time. And it’s just part of the sport because it’s so powerful. The defensive line is so powerful of dirty air. You have to do it if you have a faster car behind you coming down in these moments.”
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The current Cup Series car produces a tremendous amount of aerodynamic wake and the leading driver can simply drive out of his rear view camera and take away the preferred line. This car needs to clean air to generate downforce and Logano, and everyone in the top-5, did not let Blaney get it.
“I don’t blame them for doing it,” Blaney said. “Is it the funnest thing in the world? No. Because I’ve lived that story many, many times. But yeah, I think it was multiple. Like I knew — like I said, I had to work my ass off to get by the 5, and I had to work my ass off to get to the 24 and pass him, and I had to work my tail off to run Joey down from a long ways back.
“As I’m doing it, I’m thinking to myself, I think I’m going to get there, get close; but I don’t know if I’m going to have anything to pass him, but I can’t save because I’m never going to get there if I save. … I really just had to use my shit up really hard to get close, and then yeah, just didn’t really have anything left there. So it was a little bit of both. My tires were spent and he did a good job of placing his car where he needed to be.”
Blaney came up just short of repeating as champion but did secure the first 1-2 championship finish in Team Penske history and also ensured that he or his teammate would produce the third straight Cup Series championship for team owner Roger Penske.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s really incredible,” Blaney said. “Three in a row for Team Penske and Roger and Ford. Jim Farley was here today. That’s a massive deal for Ford. It was really great to have him here. Super excited for Roger and Walt Czarnecki and Tim Cindric, Bud Denker, Jonathan Gibson, all those guys who put it together.”
