Blaney not sure he earned Charlotte win
CONCORD, N.C. – Winding through the final lap of the inaugural “roval” race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Ryan Blaney wasn’t expecting to win. He was focused on the points he was about to earn and advancing to the second round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Blaney was several car lengths behind Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson – who were fighting to win the Bank of America Roval 400 on Sunday – and solidly in third place. But he suddenly saw chaos unfolding on the 17-turn, 2.28-mile track ahead of him when Johnson lost control of his No. 48 Chevrolet, spun out and nicked the 78 Toyota too.
With Truex and Johnson out of the picture, Blaney blew through the final turns on the front stretch – almost wrecking himself – to win his first race of 2018. He’s happy he won, but he’s not sure he deserved it.
“Obviously, that’s not the way I’d want to do it,” Blaney said after his second career Cup Series win. “Obviously, I want to go out and dominate the race. Whenever you win something like this, it’s a weird feeling. I don’t really want to call it an undeserved feeling, but it’s just kind of an odd feeling.”
Blaney and his No. 12 Ford led 16 of the 109 total laps on Charlotte’s new halfoval, half-road course and won the second stage of the race. With one playoff point from the stage win and five from taking the checkered flag, he enters the next round of the postseason with 13 total playoff points – eighth among the top-12 remaining drivers.
To compare, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are first and second, respectively, with 55 and 50 playoff points going into the first race in the Round of 12, which is Sunday at Dover.
Blaney’s obviously thrilled he and his team advanced. But he was conflicted about it long after the race ended and wondered if he earned the checkered flag.
The 24-year-old driver explained he’s in an unexpected spot. He doesn’t want to be “overjoyed” about winning because Truex and Johnson wrecked, but he still thinks he and his team should take pride in winning a playoff race – especially the first one on the unique roval track.
“I don’t have the vocabulary to describe the feeling,” Blaney said. “I’ve never won a race like that before. Any race I’ve ever been in – quarter midgets, late models, legends cars – I’ve never been running third, and the two cars wreck each other and I win the race.”
“You try to be as humble as you can about it because you know you weren’t the best car today,” he continued.