EMBRACING CHAOS: Blaney takes YellaWood 500 for third Talladega win
Oct. 1—TALLADEGA — Ryan Blaney's plenty familiar with the chaos of Talladega.
Not just because of the chaotic finishes he's been a part of and being close to getting wrapped up in The Big One, but because of seeing his dad Dave Blaney racing on the track.
Early in his racing career and after his dad racing at Talladega 24 times, the younger Blaney decided he would embrace the chaos.
"I love this place," Blaney said. "I accepted this place early on in my Cup career. I feel like people have two opinions on speedways, either they love them or they hate them with a passion. I made the decision that I'm going to love these places and I'm going to accept it if something bad happens to me."
On Sunday, Blaney made history at the Yellawood 500 as he clinched his third Talladega win and locked up a spot in the round of eight in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
He's now one of three current drivers with at least three Cup Series wins at Talladega, joining Brad Keselowski (six) and Joey Logano (three). Blaney took home the win after beating Kevin Harvick by .012 seconds.
Harvick was later disqualified for violating windshield and overall assembled vehicle rules.
"It's always fun to win these things, and you have to appreciate it because they're so hard to do," Blaney said. "We hung in there all day and it was fun to drag race Kevin there at the end. I hate it had to be us to beat him at his final speedway race, but it was definitely fun to race with someone like that, especially coming down to the end where it gets pretty well."
Despite the lack of yellow flags (four), the race still had its dramas as it featured the lead changes in any Cup Series race since 2011. Blaney led four laps.
"The couple of other ones I've won here, we led a lot. We led a lot of laps and controlled the race," Blaney said. "This one, we didn't really lead much. Single digit laps, I think we led, and just kind of a different way. We still were up there all day, we just never really controlled the lead. It was hard to control the lead."
Crew chief Jonathan Hassler said that with the team's superspeedway success, he came into Talladega with confidence. Blaney has won three of his last 10 races at Talladega and finished twice in two.
"I told the guys this morning, 'We don't need to go out and do anything different,'" Hassler said. We just need to do what we've been doing, execute and we'll be in good shape. They did that, we were in position and Ryan did a great job."
Team owner and former racer Roger Penske said that one of the reasons for Blaney's success at superspeedways is because of his calm demeanor, which the Talladega winner mentioned is one of his strengths.
"He doesn't take a lot of chances when it gets shuffled back. I think he stays cool and realizes at the end," Penske said. "You could listen to him on the radio today, he was very good. I think with Jonathan and certainly his spotter, you've got to give these guys a lot of credit. I listened to two or three of them at one time and I can't believe the commitment these spotters are making, I think they're driving the car sometimes. It's a tremendous team effort."
Blaney's win at Talladega puts him through to the round of eight, clearing the fog of an incredibly tight Cup Series race. As he's preparing for the next race, he said that the win at Talladega allows him to race more confidence.
"Maybe you're trying to win the race next week, for sure, but maybe you can be a little bit more aggressive," Blaney said. "On stages or back, maybe you flip the stages to try to go win the race instead of having to go get points in the stages. I feel like a lot of guys are going to have to do that if they're on the agenda of being close to the cutline. It changes the way you approach it a little bit, but it's very relieving. That's for sure."
Sports Writer Thomas Ashworth: 256-236-1551. On Twitter: @ThomasAshworth0.
