Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Ryan Blaney Interview after his win at Martinsville | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

On this week’s ‘Victory Lap,’ Kevin Harvick is joined by Ryan Blaney following his critical playoff win at Martinsville Speedway! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by NASCAR on Fox. And man, did we have a wild weekend at Martinsville? But the guy who made it happen, Ryan Blaney, is today's guest on our victory lap. And I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say about his weekend. Well, Ryan, thanks for taking the time today to tell us about your weekend. And I think for me, just knowing what that feels like to be in that position emotionally, mentally, physically. And then to be able to win that race, just tell everybody, just. what a relief that is and the stress leading up to that,

knowing that that's your last chance. Yeah, I mean, what a great weekend. And obviously, through the race for us, it was for our 12th team. And going into that week, you know, it was a long week of, you know, kind of the heartbreak of Miami of me giving the race away pretty much from there. And, you know, really needing to win at Martinsville and just kind of understand. standing, hey, we're in this spot and like points through the day don't matter. Let's just try to do the best we can to set us up for the end of the race.

And that's what we did. So talk about highs and lows of the sport all the time and talk about going from a pretty big low on the last corner of Miami and then turning around and us being able to do it together as a group. So I'm so proud of this team and never given up and just understanding what is the goal and how do we do our best to try to achieve that goal. and so it's cool to be part of a team like that, and I can't thank them enough for always sticking with me. Yeah, and when you go through those moments of those building blocks of going through the lows of last week and the highs of this week, and then now you go into a championship scenario that you've succeeded at,

and I think that's what's happening with this 12th team. Every time I watch it, it's like, okay, we check another box off. We're still together, and everybody's still on the same side after Homestead. Now we go to Martinsville and win. And now you're going back to Phoenix, knowing that you can win the championship. You've already won the championship. So you don't have to go answer those questions. What is the difference between going into last year's Phoenix race and this year's Phoenix race in your head?

Just mentally and how you prepare and the relief that it is already having won that championship? Yeah, I always think experience is the best thing in anything, really. you know if you've experienced something you kind of know what to expect a little bit more you know how to approach it if you get fortunate enough to experience you know something similar in this case you know having another chance at a title you just kind of know what to expect you know the week is a little bit different last year i didn't really know what to expect for the from the week and you know you kind of get pulled all these different ways and and it's it's great to do right you're fortunate to be able to do it but i think just haven't gone through that once the prep work it takes to go to phoenix um it's nice to kind of have that behind you.

You know, but at the same time, like, once Sunday starts and you get strapped into your race car, it's the same thing. Like, you're racing and you're racing mainly just three guys, you know, but you also want to do the best you can. So, yeah, I just think that experience is good. And this whole team has been able to have that experience and they know how to poise themselves to rise to the occasion, hopefully. and just do the best job that we can.

I always ask my guys, and it's just a given now. It's like bring 100% of yourself every single weekend and through the week, give 100% of your effort. And if it's enough, that's great. You know, awesome job. If not, at least we know we did everything that we could. And maybe it just didn't work out for us. But yeah, I think this group is looking forward for another shot.

They deserve it. Honestly, I think this group is even better than we were last year. it's kind of gotten overlooked a little bit this year from our ups and downs from kind of getting in a bunch of wrecks and maybe don't have the finishes that average finishes or whatever that this team deserves but that's been a super strong group and I couldn't think of anybody else to go to battle with how's that dynamic within pinsky we talk about you guys on the speedways constantly I've seen it in in person firsthand as far as the way that you guys work together to help each other as as a team internally obviously it seems like like you guys have a pretty good relationship, a great relationship as far as the drivers and the crew chiefs and the communication. Does that change at all when you know that you might be racing Lugano for the championship? And how do you guys treat that? Is it business as usual? Or does anything change during the week? Is there any one-off rules for a championship race like this at Penske? Or is it just business as usual? I like to think it's just business as usual. And to touch on the first thing

you said, I do feel like our group at Team Penske, all of us do the best job out of all the teams of working together and communicating with each other, whether that's the drivers, the crew chiefs, engineers, everybody is all in it to try to bring Roger Penske a championship, you know? And yeah, you want to be selfish and you want it to be yourself. And it's nice to have two cars in it. I think the last time that Penske had two cars in it was 2020 with Brad and Joey. So it's nice that you have some decent odds trying to bring home a trophy to everybody that work tirelessly on your stuff. So yeah, I just think it's business as usual. You know, we'll help each other out, we'll know where everybody's at.

And honestly, like, Rogers always told us that, you know, there's really no team rules when it comes to racing for wins or championships just as long as one of us wins it. you know, like making sure that we don't take each other out and hand it to the other guys. So it's kind of, it's great to have that freedom. But at the same time, you know, we work hand in hand. And that's how we have to do it. Like we've taken that advantage of having a three or four car team and you just build off of each other and you learn from each other. That's what those big teams are for, right? If you're all on your own separate island, like what's the point of having multiple cars at least?

That's how I've always thought about it. So they do a great job, and I think Rogers built that place to be that way. You know, he's always said people are your most important, you know, asset that you have, and you have to use all those people to be successful, and he's done that very well. Where do you think you are from the beginning of the year to where you are right now, from when you raced at Phoenix last time? I mean, obviously, you guys have done a great job in figuring out the car, getting through the first half of the year was you guys didn't struggle as much as some of the other guys.

But, you know, I think from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, I mean, you still feel confident that you're going to make that same gain from first Phoenix to second Phoenix like you, like you have everywhere else? Hope so. I really do hope so. I thought we were strong in Phoenix in the spring. We ran fifth and kind of came from a long ways back to get to fifth. And so I was proud of that. And I feel like that program has definitely gotten better. Our whole program has gotten better from the first few months of the season. and just kind of figuring out the new, new body style of the forwards. And I do think our short track program in particular has definitely gotten better. We've been strong with these types of tracks.

So hopefully that carries over. You hope to just kind of blend things that you've learned through the year and all these different tracks, whether it's Phoenix in the spring, Gateway, Martinsville, Richmond, Iowa, you just try to keep building on that stuff that you learn, that you think you make you as a team better.

And, yeah, hopefully we apply that. But it's going to be a tough one. I mean, you know, the 22 and 45 and 24 groups are there for a reason. They're fantastic race teams and great drivers, and it'll be a dog fight. So it's just fortunate that we're part of that fight. Well, we appreciate you taking the time today, and good luck this weekend. You guys got the momentum right on your side going into the last week. So have fun out there at a bare minimum, and good luck trying to go for that second championship.

Thanks, Kevin. Appreciate it.