Despite not winning a points-paying so far this year – he did win the All-Star Race – Blaney has proven to be one of the most consistent performers all season. He and his No. 12 Penske team have still been able to advance through the playoffs to the semifinal round, even without the benefit of the many bonus points that come with wins.
“It’s been a decent year. Obviously, we would have liked to have won other than the All-Star Race. I thought we’ve put ourselves in multiple positions to do it, it just hasn’t really fallen into place,” Blaney, 28, said.
“It’s kind of been all-around. I haven’t done the best job. We’ve had some stumbles on pit road in races I thought we could have won. A good year, the wins haven’t come, and if they did, that would make it a really good year.
“There’s still time to make the year even better than what it is.”
Self-inflicted setbacks
Mistakes in the last two races, at Las Vegas and Homestead, have left Blaney sixth (out of eight) in the standings and 18 points outside the final transfer spot to make the Nov. 6 championship race at Phoenix on points.
Martinsville’s elimination race will set the four drivers who will compete for the 2022 championship (Joey Logano is already locked in by a win). While Blaney believes he likely needs a win to advance, Martinsville could offer the perfect opportunity.
“I couldn’t think of a better place,” he said. “We’ve run really good there in the past. We’ve probably given away two or three (grandfather) clocks. It would be nice to actually get one.
“It’s a big weekend for us, obviously. Hopefully, the driver does his job unlike what he’s done the last two weeks and we put ourselves in position to try to win the race and get to Phoenix.”
Winning at Martinsville?
Martinsville hasn’t always been one of Blaney’s better tracks, but he’s certainly turned the corner there in the Cup Series in recent years. He finished fourth in the spring race which was his fifth top-five finish in his last seven races at the Virginia short track.
“I didn’t run very good there in Trucks or the first couple times in a Cup car. It really wasn’t until the fall race 2017 and especially the spring race of 2018, something just kind of clicked,” he said. “It’s a place we worked really, really hard on, like Richmond.
“At the time, Brad (Keselowski, former Penske teammate) was really strong at Martinsville and so I looked at a lot of his stuff. You kind of mold yourself around what works for guys to see if it works for you at certain race tracks.
“It just kind of fit my driving style once it kind of clicked. There’s no better time to pull one off than right now.”
A win on Sunday would certainly be a timely one for Blaney as his crew chief, Jonathan Hassler returns from a four-week NASCAR suspension due to a loose wheel in the Bristol race. The victory would also automatically advance him into the Championship 4 at Phoenix with a shot at the series title, which would be his first such opportunity.
“For us to be in this spot, I’m just proud of the effort from everybody for not really having the bonus points from wins to get through (playoff) rounds,” he said. “If I hadn’t made a mistake the last two weeks, we would be sitting in a really good spot. That’s just not the case.
“We could have done better, myself included – I’m a big part of that.”
