Ryan Blaney gets ready for the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo: Myk Crawford | The Podium Finish)
LAS VEGAS — Ryan Blaney managed another solid race Sunday afternoon with a third place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube.
The Team Penske driver did not, however, have his car unloaded at the beginning of the weekend with the same speed. During the notably windy qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, Blaney qualified to start the race from the 15th position with a lap time of 29.438 seconds around the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track.
After 80 laps, the 30-year-old had moved up to 11th, narrowly missing out on valuable stage points. Blaney and the No. 12 team continued working on his car throughout the second stage, leading to a fourth-place stage finish. During Stage 3, Blaney was able to maintain speed and take home a respectable third-place finish.
“I thought we got better all day, which is good,” Blaney said after the race. “Obviously, I wish we had more, but we got better all day from where we started and where we qualified. I thought we ended kind of our best probably. We were able to get in front of the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) and the 11 (Denny Hamlin), who was pretty good, the 54 (Ty Gibbs).
“We didn’t have anything for the 5 (Kyle Larson) or the 45 (Tyler Reddick) all day, but I’m proud of the effort. Hopefully, this is a good learning experience. Going forward, hopefully we’re in a good spot.”
Ryan Blaney battles his way inside the top five at Las Vegas. (Photo: Myk Crawford | The Podium Finish)
Being the highest finishing Ford driver, Blaney also reflected on how he feels Ford as a whole is stacking up against both the Chevrolet and Toyota cars after Las Vegas.
“I don’t know,” Blaney added. “The Chevys are still fast. The Toyotas are still fast. The Fords, we had a good showing today too but we just have a little bit of work to do.”
“It was a long day. We started 15th and just kind of slowly worked our way up. The top two guys were pretty quick. It was hard to catch them. We never really had the speed of those guys, but I’m proud of the effort. We got better all day, which was good. I didn’t think we were great early and we continued to get better, so that’s all you can ask for. It was a good day for the Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang. We definitely have a decent idea of where to go from here going forward.”
Without a doubt, there is a lot of knowledge from Sunday’s race that Blaney and his team can apply as soon as next week as NASCAR heads to the unique, 1-mile track at Phoenix Raceway for the Shriners Children’s 500. Aside from what he learned during today’s race, Blaney has a good track record at Phoenix, securing runner-up finishes at the three most recent visits to the track.
Consistency and being a good student of each track are what make some of the most successful NASCAR drivers, and with two consecutive runner-up finishes already locked in for the 2024 season, Ryan Blaney is showing how he was able to earn himself his first Cup Series championship during his last visit to Phoenix.
