MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The journey is never the same for any competitor, but Ryan Blaney’s path to the Championship 4 at Phoenix was marked with various obstacles.
The son and grandson of a racer, Blaney reached the Round of 8 four previous times and failed to advance to the championship race. Only Kurt Busch had made it to the Round of 8 as many times without advancing to the title race in the playoff format. Busch, though, already had a title, winning the 2004 crown.
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Blaney was left to watch others celebrate championships and wonder when he would get the chance. He reached the Round of 8 in 2017, ’19, ’21 and ’22 before advancing.
Blaney entered the Round of 8 elimination race 22 points from the cutline in 2017. He was 23 points below the cutline entering the cutoff race in 2019. Blaney was one point from the transfer spot entering the 2021 elimination race at Martinsville but contact damaged his car, he didn’t score any stage points and failed to advance. Last year, he was 18 points behind going into the Martinsville race and again failed to advance.
His victory this past weekend at Martinsville sends Blaney into the Championship 4. He joins 2021 champion Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and William Byron in Sunday’s title race at Phoenix Raceway (coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock)
“There’s been some bumps in the road, for sure,” Blaney said after his 10th career Cup victory. “Maybe not being as, like, dominant as you want to be, right? Some of the other guys that are around your age who kind of came in at the same time, you want to be the best of that crop. We haven’t. We haven’t had the successes as like a Larson, Chase, those people.
“I try not to let that get to me, right? Chase and I are great friends. It kind of motivates me like, ‘Man, I want to be that guy. I want to be that guy winning a championship, all these races, I want to be that guy.’”
Blaney has excelled in what has been a difficult season. Ford teams struggled for speed earlier in the season and that impacted results.
“I think the biggest challenge this year has just been trying to find speed,” he said. “It’s kind of eluded us a little bit, especially in the summer months leading up to the playoffs.”
Still, Blaney won the Coca-Cola 600, his first victory in one of the sport’s crown jewel events.
His two victories in the playoffs — Talladega and Martinsville — tie him with Larson for most wins in the postseason this year.
It’s a sharp difference from last season in the playoffs for Blaney. In the Round of 8, he made a mistake at Las Vegas that sent his car into the wall. The following week, he ruined a strong race at Homestead by spinning on the access road after exiting pit road.
“All you can do is try to learn from those, try to be a smarter race car driver, try to understand the bigger picture,” Blaney said. “That’s like the biggest thing. At least that’s the biggest thing I took away from it.
“Everyone makes mistakes, but do you learn from your mistakes or do you keep screwing up? We learned from ‘em.”
Making matters worse last year was that Blaney finished second to teammate Joey Logano at Phoenix and watched Logano win the championship. It was easy to wonder what might have been had Blaney not made his mistakes at Las Vegas and Homestead and failed to advance to the title race.
“He realized that obviously you take those mistakes out, he’s a champion,” crew chief Jonathan Hassler said of Blaney. “Got to clean up the mistakes.
“He went to work in the offseason just trying to make sure that he was as mentally focused and could mentally last through the race. He’s done a great job. Leaps and bounds, tons of progress this year.”
