Plagued by a race-ending tire going down in the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Round of 8 opener, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney finds himself in a position he would rather not be in entering the midpoint of the penultimate round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
And just like “Macho Man” Randy Savage delivered masterclass promos on his opponents throughout the glory days of professional wrestling, the No. 12 Ford driver is ready to prove that, despite the odds, the cream rises to the top.
Ooooooooh, yeahhhh.
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“Yeah, Mr. Savage. I don’t think there is a person before or after him that could cut promos quite like that guy,” Blaney said during a Wednesday media availability. “If I’m sitting at home and I’m bored, maybe I’ve had a couple drinks, I will go watch Randy Savage interviews, just because I think it was amazing what was going through that man’s head.
“But yeah, that’s like my favorite one. He keeps pulling out the creamer, and yeah, ‘unjustifiably in a position I’d rather not be in, but the cream will rise to the top,’ and I hope that is what we can use for this weekend. So yeah, I thought that was a perfect comparison to my situation. So thank you, Mr. Savage.”
Despite being in that position, the No. 12 team isn’t quite in full panic mode entering the final two races before the Championship 4 is solidified. Blaney is staring down two of his best tracks — Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway — and is far from thinking it is a must-win scenario.
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“We still got two races left, and I don’t personally think that we are in a must-win quite yet,” Blaney said. “You know, Talladega, you never know what can happen. You could go have a massive points day, be short of the win, but maybe a couple other guys don’t have as good a points day, and you go into Martinsville, maybe in a spot where you could maybe point your way in if you go have another good day short of winning. So our prep is really no different. It’s, how do we try to be efficient through the stages and gather up all the stage points, you know?”
Blaney will try to be the cream of the crop this weekend as he enters eighth in the playoff standings, dead last and 31 points below the cutline, as the Cup Series heads for a superspeedway showdown at Talladega in Sunday’s Yellawood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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