Ryan Blaney: ‘This place has been special to me since I was a kid’
NASCAR.com's Jessie Punch catches up with race winner Ryan Blaney after his stellar day in Long Pond to earn career win No. 12.
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00:00Win number two of the season here for Ryan Blaney bringing it home today at
00:03Pocono back in Victor Lane at the same racetrack where you got your first Cup
00:06Series win back in 2017. How good does it feel to be back standing here? Yeah
00:11Victor Lane is a little different than seven years ago it's a different place
00:15but yeah I mean super special this place has been special to me honestly ever
00:20since I was a kid like I ran at the dirt track outside of turn three when I was
00:23nine years old and came here a lot to watch dad race and got my first first
00:27Cup win with the Wood Brothers in 17 and just cool to be back you know you're
00:31always have special places in your heart at places you've tracks you've won
00:35at you know before and in no matter what series Cup, Truck, Xfinity so I always
00:41enjoy being here and people are messing with their chance but this is a cool
00:47part about this Victor Lane the fans are here so that parts great and but no just
00:51awesome effort by the 12 folks today the boys were amazing great strategy great
00:55car and happy it worked out for us. Restarts here are not easy watching you
01:00navigate those final few take me back through the difficulties the challenges
01:04you saw. Well I knew that was gonna be the toughest part I had faith and
01:08confidence that our car was good enough if we came out came out of turn one with
01:13the lead we could hold it but like you know having a handful of restarts in a
01:18row different guys on the front row with me like the 11, 48 different pushers my
01:24biggest focus was just like coming off a turn one with the lead you know and I
01:27figured we could kind of manage after that but it's tough you know you're
01:31trying to get in a rhythm you're trying to just get running and you have a good
01:34restart and then you have a caution have a good restart they have caution you're
01:37like oh man one might not go my way here so but you know we were able to hold
01:43everybody off and and get the lead and they kind of stretch it enough to where
01:47I could kind of save my stuff there with you know six seven to go. Well you got
01:51that win just a couple weeks ago at Iowa and then you've had a lot of consistent
01:55strong runs here in the last couple weeks this 12 team what does it say
01:58about the potential here heading into these last couple races of the regular
02:02season? Yeah I've been really proud of the effort we've had you know leading up
02:06to the last couple months the last two months have been really great for us and
02:11and maybe the results sometimes don't show you know we won Iowa had a great
02:15chance to win Gateway had a great run going at Loudon and just you know kind
02:18of circumstances outside of our control that have kind of happened but I feel
02:21like our group internally we have been bringing fast cars to racetrack we're
02:27executing very well as a whole group and I'm super proud of that that's all you
02:31can do right is just perform to the best of your ability and give it your all and
02:36whatever happens happens you know and I think our guys have done that and so
02:40that's all I could ask of them you know so we'll continue to work on trying to
02:43find speed you're always doing that no matter if you win or run 30th you know
02:46one week you're always trying to find more speed but proud of the effort from
02:50every men and women at Team Penske race shop in Morrisville they've worked
02:55tirelessly to get us to where we need to be so big weekend next week in Indy try
03:00to win one for RP up there and then take a break and get ready for the playoffs.
03:03This is a good way to start a big week for the old boss man there at Indy back
03:07on the oval what are your thoughts with the return to that track? Yeah I'm
03:10excited we're getting back on the big track I mean everyone at Penske knows
03:15it's no secret that that's a big one for us to win you know especially it was
03:20before and especially now that he owns it so you know and what a cool thing to
03:26do is try and you know Joseph won the 500 this year again so trying to sweep
03:31Indy's in both series I think is like huge so we'll be full full effort to try
03:38to do that for RP I'd love to kiss the brakes with RP I mean that'd be the
03:41coolest thing ever that's a childhood dream so we'll see. Congrats on the win
03:45today Ryan best of luck next week too.