At roval layout, Blaney ‘never won a race like that before’
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. He suddenly saw chaos unfolding on the 17-turn, 2.28mile track ahead of him when Johnson lost control of his No. 48 Chevrolet, spun out and nicked the 78 Toyota.
With Truex and Johnson out of the picture, Blaney blew through the final turns on the frontstretch, almost wrecking himself, to get his first race win 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 sec- ond career Cup 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.
“But we put ourselves in a good spot, and it worked out for us. When I was running third, I was just thinking about points. We were good on points, and I was cool with just riding around in third. But then that situation happened, and we happened to be there.”
Blaney and his No. 12 Ford led 16 of the 109 total laps on Charlotte’s new half-oval, 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 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 International Speedway.
While four playoff drivers were eliminated from contention with Sunday’s results — including seven-time champion Johnson — 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 said he’s in an unexpected spot. He doesn’t want to be “overjoyed” about winning because Truex and Johnson wrecked, but he 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. I think being humble is a very big part of it, but at the same time, celebrate because you’ve got to take them how you can get them.”