Ryan Blaney was understandably frustrated after last week’s Daytona 500 but he;s ready to put it behind him and focus on Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Blaney dominated the Daytona 500 to the tune of leading a race-high 118 laps. But he got shuffled back in the wild finish that saw Austin Dillon go on to win and leave Blaney with just a seventh-place performance.
It left the Team Penske driver with a bitter taste in his mouth to start the season.
“I was in kind of a weird mood Sunday and Monday and I wasn’t really distraught or nothing, but I wasn’t really happy or excited,” Blaney explained in Atlanta. “I was almost in kind of a weird, peaceful mood, which was strange. I knew we went out and we did the best that we could and it just didn’t work out for us and what are you gonna do? You can’t complain too much about that.”
Blaney’s No. 12 Ford was at the front of the field for more than half the race as a follow-up to his Can-Am Duel win the previous Thursday. He was definitely in contention for Victory Lane in the 500 until the circumstances dictated otherwise. But Blaney understands that’s the nature of restrictor plate racing.
“We had the lead and we lost on the restart and we actually got it back and get shuffled back,” he said. “It was so hard to block as the leader and it was nuts after that 10 to go caution. I knew it was gonna get nuts, but I wasn’t really disappointed.
“Yeah, you lead a bunch of the race and you lose out on the 500, but I don’t care about leading 100-and-some laps, I’d rather lead one and you can’t be too down about it. You just move on and you try to learn from your mistakes and try to figure out what you can do a little bit better, but I wasn’t really that distraught or nothing. I was just in a weird mood, but it wasn’t bad.”
It’s little solace for Blaney to be leading the series points standings coming to Atlanta after coming up short in Daytona. His focus this week as it is every race of the season is actually quite simple – win.
“I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t even looked at the points,” said Blaney, who qualified 26ths for Sunday’s race at Atlanta. “If you wouldn’t have told me that, I wouldn’t even have known I was the points leader. It’s not somewhere you’re gonna be sitting for 37 weeks. You just try to go out there and do the best you can.
“We haven’t really raced yet. We haven’t gone to a track where you’re working on your car throughout practice to try to get it to handle and handle on long runs. At Daytona you do a little bit of that, but it’s not like here or Vegas or Phoenix, so I haven’t even paid attention to that. You just try to focus on how you can go to Atlanta and have a good run, and go try to win the race.”
