“I have high hopes”: Ryan Blaney opens up on his expectations from his Team Penske crew

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske's star driver, reflected on his practice session before the NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He reflected that he comes into every weekend with high hopes and a streak of competitiveness.

Ryan Blaney has publicly stated that he trusts his Team Penske crew and that he keeps positive thoughts for every race weekend; however, he talks about taking a pragmatic and flexible approach. Following a very effective tire test that allowed the team to collect valuable data, Blaney was positive but cautious about setting the car in the first practice. He said that good test results made it possible for the team to start from the base they have, and they gradually progressed as the weekend went on.

He told Bob Pockrass:

"I have high hopes going in every weekend, you know, if we can contend for the win and run well. And so, yeah, I mean, I didn't think I had any huge expectations. I just wanted to see where we were at, start a practice, and if we had to work on it, great. If we were close, that's even better. But I think it did help, you know, that those guys did have a good test, and we were able to kind of build off of that a little bit more, and I think it definitely showed."

Ryan Blaney started the season in a positive way, managing to finish seventh at the Daytona 500, and then he went on to win his first race at Nashville Superspeedway. He raised his level of racing to be able to bring the last stage of the races to his advantage.

His second victory followed immediately after the end of the regular season at Daytona, where he held Daniel Suarez tightly during a fight for first place and eventually beat him to the line by 0.031 seconds. Throughout the 29 races, Blaney was very consistent by finishing inside the top 10 sixteen times and in the top five twelve times. Apart from this, he also managed to get two poles and was at the front of the race for over 530 laps.

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Ryan Blaney makes his feelings known on the ‘wild’ and unpredictable Bristol race

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 13, 2025, proved to be wildly unpredictable and challenging, mostly due to extreme tire wear. Goodyear introduced a new, softer right-side tire compound intended for hotter track conditions, but the cooler night race yielded unexpected results with tires wearing out as early as 30 laps into the 500-lap event.

Ryan Blaney, driving the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, managed to navigate the challenging conditions by carefully managing his tires and running many caution laps, which helped him finish a strong fourth place.

“The tires were interesting. No one expected that. I guess that’s what they want. It practices one way and then it races a completely different way, so we just tried to manage tires and ran a bunch of laps under caution, and I thought we were pretty good all night and glad to get a good finish,” said Blaney while reflecting on the race. “It was a wild night. I wish we wouldn’t have run so many laps under caution,” he added.

Ryan Blaney also addressed the mental aspect of racing, emphasizing his approach to handling conflict on the track.

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Edited by Rupesh