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

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Kevin Harvick sits down with Ryan Blaney for this week’s Victory Lap fresh off his thrilling victory in Nashville to talk about what it means to finally secure a win after multiple close calls this season. Blaney shares how his team plans to keep the momentum rolling, the lessons learned from this hard-fought victory, and how they’re preparing for the upcoming challenges at Michigan and the unique Mexico City event. It’s a candid, insightful, and fun chat between two drivers who know what it takes to win. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The biggest thing for us is to keep building off of that, right? You don't want to get complacent. We went to a luchador match. I might have made a fool of myself and busted my butt in the ring. Everybody's really excited to go there. Not only the drivers and team, the whole community down there in Mexico City. Well, Ryan Blaney, I don't even know where to start with all the bad luck and everything that you guys have had throughout the year. But congratulations and finally just put it all together and whooped them.

Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of been a up and down roller coaster start to the year for us. Bringing fast cars. I mean, so that's something to be really proud of. But, you know, a lot of DNFs and just some unfortunate things happening. But it was nice that everything came together last night. Nice that we still, you know, are continuing to bring great speed and executing well. And just one of those nights where, you know, it just was like a normal race for us.

And luckily, we had the speed to control the race there the second half. of it and kind of never look back. What's it been like through this period with your team to go to the racetrack every week and realize I've got the fastest car most of the time and have to deal with all the struggles mentally and everything that you've gone through? I mean, I've heard some of your interviews, and I know you well enough now. You were pretty frustrated with just the continuous things that seem to happen. But what's that been like with you and your team?

Yeah, yeah. It would get frustrating, you know, just like, and not anything that we were doing in particular as a group. I thought, I feel like Team Penske and our 12 team is doing a great job. Like everyone's communicating well. Everybody's really relying on each other. They trust each other. So that part has been great. But I think the frustration side was like, man, what do we got to do to get these finishes we deserve or, you know, finally close the deal with the win?

It just seemed like everything we did, just something would happen, kind of out of our control. So everyone's spirits stayed high, though. This is what I love about the group I'm with is, you know, no matter, you know, we wrecked the Charlotte last week, didn't finish the race. But they never got down. They looked forward to going to Nashville and prepared, like always. And they just have a great, great mentality right now. So we never get too down ourselves. So it's nice to kind of get over that hump.

And hopefully it smooths out from here. What do you think makes you and your team so good on these long runs during the race? I mean, to me, it just looks like your car turns better than everybody else's. And is that a driving style that you've had throughout your career to be able to just manage that car at the beginning of the runs or wanted to turn better? Is that a characteristic that you've had your whole career? Yeah, I mean, like Jonathan and I would kind of look at, all right, we're, where's the strength at.

I have always preferred a car to have loads of turn in it and I'll just deal with being free in some spots. So we've kind of come to just this great spot of hitting this thing where we're not way off the pace on new tires,

but we seem to hold on a lot longer. So I think it's just Jonathan's mindset of how he sets up these race cars and how he builds them. and it just kind of compliments what I've always enjoyed doing. That's, you know, kind of being aware of my tires and just a style that I kind of like the car to feel like. You know, honestly, I feel like you are a lot of the same way. Like, you know, I feel like watching your in cars like you were always preferred a freer car and your hands are always moving and just the positivity in the front end is something I always look for.

And it just so happens that it still hangs on. So it's, I think it's mainly set up that just kind of compliments of my. style. Yeah, well, it pays off for you. As as you, now that you've been to victory lane, what is the, I know you want to win the championship. Everybody does. But what is, what are the goals? Do you have, do you have weaknesses that you guys want to work on as you get to the end of the playoffs, preparing for the playoffs? Where do you think the weak point is of the 12 team right now that you, that you know you need to get straight before the playoffs start? You know, I'd say we're doing a lot of things really well.

Well, honestly, nothing stands out of my mind of like we have to really improve on this. And it's a constant thing. Like, hey, sometimes you have a little bit of issues on pit road. And we work really hard on that. I have to do some things better on my side that I'm not fully happy with. I still feel like there's a lot of potential there for me to get better, whether that's, you know, the preparation, the thinking kind of from Saturday to Sunday through the race. There's always little things. I don't think they're weaknesses, but I just love where our group is at.

And I think the biggest thing for us is, you know, we've, Team Penske and everybody started off the year really strong, really fast. And it's just how do you keep building off of that, right? You don't want to get complacent. You don't want to get relaxed and just say, well, you know, what we got going to the track is working. So we're not going to, you know, continue to keep our minds open and develop how to get better and better. This team does a great job at that. It's no matter of the success or the struggles are always just working. What's the next step?

So I wouldn't say there's a ton of weak spots right now, just little things that I feel like we can clean up. How's your road racing? Are you ready? It's almost road race season. I guess I guess we know. Yeah, I was going to say, we know you'll be good at Michigan. And, you know, Ford and their whole team puts a lot of effort into that race. But we're going into road course season. How do you feel about all that? Yeah, I'm not the best road course racer. I'm average at best. I work really hard on it, like trying to figure out where can I be better and compare myself to the good guys. I'm working really hard on it.

So, yeah, I mean, I guess that's the biggest thing from just me personally. Like, I need to get better at road courses. But I am excited to go to Mexico in a couple weeks. I went down there a couple months ago. It's awesome. The people there are really excited were going. So, yeah, I feel like the road course, the driver needs to get better at the road courses. And then I think we'll have the whole package.

Yeah, road courses, it's just a, it's a completely different world. You talk about Mexico and you talk about being excited. And if you listen to the shops and the chatter, and so this could go bad or that could go bad, I had a great experience in Mexico City. Tell me about the time that you got to spend down there. What did you guys do? I think there were some wrestling mask involved and all kinds of wild stuff. Yeah, myself, Chase Elliott-Swarz and C. Bill went down there and this was a couple months. go and just got to walk around the racetrack. Got to walk around kind of the pit area. Got to see a lot of the, you know, kind of community around the racetrack. Got to see a good bit of Mexico City. Went to eat at some good places, which was nice. Yeah, we went to a luchador match where wrestling kind of originated.

And that was fun. I might have made a fool of myself and busted my butt in the ring. Yeah, we did that. And then, you know, had dinner with some folks that helping kind of put on the race there. So just kind of trying to get acclimated to the people who are making this possible, along with a lot of other NASCAR folks. Then we had a press conference the morning that we left. And it was unbelievable the amount of press that was in there. And going back to what I said earlier, everybody's really excited to go there. Not only the drivers

and teams, I feel like, but the whole community down there, Mexico City, from the spectators to the reporters, the track folks, like, they're really excited to have us. So I'm excited to get back and see the track done. It wasn't fully prepared like it's going to be for us. But I'm excited to see what they've changed on it and how it's going to look. Well, I'm happy to see you get back to Victory Lane. I know you guys have had a frustrating start with just the way that the results have been. But I know you've got to be happy with the performance of your car

and the way that it's run all year. So keep it up. Hopefully we're talking to you again soon and good luck the rest of the year. All right. Thanks, Kim.