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

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Join Kevin Harvick on an exciting episode of Victory Lap as he chats with the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney! In this special bonus episode, Ryan shares his experience returning to Pocono Raceway, the site of his first career NASCAR Cup Series win. Hear all about his thrilling victory and how he dominated the field in the closing laps of Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. And this week, we have another special episode of a victory laugh. This week, it is yesterday's winner with Ryan Blaney. So looking forward to hearing how he's kickstarted his season and what it took to win in Pocono. Well, Ryan Blaney, you put the pieces together again at Pocono. And I think from all of us on the outside looking in, slow start to the season. But, man, you guys have been on a roll through this middle portion of the run. race. Congratulations. Tell us about your day yesterday.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, really, I think, I feel like the last two months we've been kind of firing on all cylinders. Just as far as our pace goes, you know, execution at the racetrack from just our group on the 12th team has been really strong. And I, you know, can't be prouder of that. I feel that's all you can ask for, right? Is your group executing to the best of their ability? Am I doing the things that I need to be doing? And I feel like we've done that. So I'm really proud of that effort. Some of the finishes the last two months haven't really reflected on how we've been running.

I look at Gateway and, like, Loudoun where we had some problems. But we've been running really, really good at those places. And it was nice to go to a bigger intermediate track. You know, we haven't had one really since Charlotte at the 600 of where I thought we struggled. So it's nice to work on things in those, you know, those weeks leading up to, you know, your next intermediate. removed from the previous one and be better and learn and have a car that could win the race and have the speed to just contend. And we did a great job on the strategy to put us in a spot where we could, you know, kind of show the speed in our car. When you're going through that

strategy and you're in the car, explain to me how you are. I know I was always, I always felt like I was in the dark a little bit because there's so many things that are going. You wind up in the middle of the pack. You wind up at the front of the pack. How are you in those situations? Because has it played it perfect and you leapfrog the 11 right at the right time. Yeah, it was one of those strategies that Jonathan and I talked about before the race, you know, of hey, you know, we start a kind of see where we get to in the first handful of laps. How does our car hang on? And then you're kind of making your decision of, hey, I feel like we have a race winning car.

It's just how do you hit the strategy right? So from that point on, we kind of just Jonathan kept in his mind of, hey, we're going to flip the stages. we're going to, you know, kind of sacrifice some time on pit road to make sure we have more gas in the car before the final pit tops so where we can take less gas than everybody and just kind of cycle forward. It's almost like speedway racing nowadays, right? How can you take the least amount of fuel? And that's kind of what we did. I feel like if early in the day we thought, hey, we have a at best fifth place car. Maybe you, you know, you run the stages, get your stage points and then try to fight back for a top 10. but we thought we had a car that could win the race and Jonathan called it perfect and we never, you know, veered from our plan.

We stuck to our guns and huge props to him for having that in the back of his head and adapting to situations that, you know, give us the best shot to win. Yeah, you guys did a great job. What do you think at the beginning of the year? Tell us where you thought you were off. Was it through the corners down the straightaway

where you guys just missing it? And all of a sudden, and this seems to be, I kind of lived this through the, last couple of years, you know, at Stuart Haas. It seemed like on the Ford side, you were, you had speed, but the rest of us were kind of off a little bit getting going and then you get going through the year. Where are you guys off and where do you think you sit now with the races that are left, specifically the last 10 races as you go into the championship and how they fit you? Yeah. I feel like the beginning of the year is just trying to get our hands wrapped around

the new nose that Ford had with the Mustang. you know, whenever there's a change, it takes a little bit to kind of get going. And, you know, you have wind tunnel numbers. You have SIM numbers. You have some wheel force and tire testing data. But until you're actually there at the racetrack and competing with other cars during the weekend, you don't really know where you stack up. And kind of a great example, you know, we won the championship in Phoenix. We had a test there like a month later with the new car.

And I was like, oh, man, I feel like we're kind of picking up right where we left off. But then the season started and we started getting to some of these bigger racetracks where Arrow is more important, you know, the intermediates and we were just off. You know, we couldn't get in the corner as fast as we wanted to. That was kind of a big thing for us is just entry speed. And it's just hard to make that up now with this car. Like there's no, there's not a lot of backing up the corner a ton and then getting a huge run off. It's just, it's just all momentum. So that really hindered us.

So we worked really hard on trying to figure out, okay, just get this one third, the first third of the corner. figured out and then I feel like the rest of the corner I can at least manage you know and we can be closer and we worked really hard on that and we found it you know the last couple months and I talked about our short track program being really strong here the last two months because we just had a agava short tracks and you know us went in Iowa the two win in gateway Joey went in the all-star race and then went in Nashville you know it was kind of a a couple different rules packages from short track rules package the simple diffuser or you know Nashville and gateway a little bit bigger but still a short track, I guess.

But I was just kind of focused on like, all right, what's our intermediate stuff going to be like? Because that's where we really struggle with at the corner entry speed and carrying momentum through the corner. And we just tried some stuff that has worked. And so it's just kind of all around. I mean, you know, little things add up. There's no big, you know, treasure findings nowadays of like, man, we found this big tool to help us. And it's really kind of turned our program around.

And it's all these little things that stack up and add up to a tenth, two-tenths. And it's like 10 different little things that you can find that that means a lot. You know, and this car is so close. If you hit it, it's great. But if you miss it by a little bit, you are out to lunch. And it's just a matter of kind of finiting things and our groups done a great job at finding those little things. Yeah. And I think people just, it's hard to explain to people how all those little things stack up to make such an impact.

because the racing in today's world is so much closer than what it used to be as far as the competition and the spread between the cars. So when you start stacking these little things and hitting on them, it just adds up. So what do you think those last 10 races look like for you guys as far as how they line up with what you like to race on? Is there anything that worries you? What do you think of the last 10 races for the 12 team? I feel confident in the playoffs for us. Really, the only like curveball, and that's for everybody, is the first. first round, you know, with the Glen, Atlanta, and then Bristol can be pretty wacky.

So the first round is just kind of, oh, I don't know how it's going to go. You could get tore up early in Atlanta and be done and you hope that, you know, you can rebound. But, you know, kind of after the first round, I feel like those tracks, you know, kind of line up really well for us. And, you know, Talladega is in the second round, which is always, you never know what's going to happen at that place. The speedways are just up in the air. But I feel like our team did a great job of, like, coming to the playoffs last

year of understanding the situation and just figuring out, you know, how do we perform and execute as well as we can. If we find a little bit of speed in our car, that's fantastic as well along the way. But I've always been a big believer in just everybody in your group doing their job to the best of their ability, you know, and that's really all you can ask for. And that's, that goes from the preparation work, you know, weeks leading up to the event to during the event, you know, practice qualifying race. Like if you're doing the best that you can do, that's all you can ask for. And I think our group in particular,

not can only speak for them because I work with them every week, but when they are the best that they can be, we can win championships and we can win races and things like that. So I think it lines up well. The first round, like I said, is kind of weird. But hopefully we can make it through that. Playoff points obviously help, especially in that first round.

Like if you do have an issue, you have something to lean back on. But yeah, I look forward to indie this week and then, you know, taking a little break and then getting ready for the last 10 weeks that's going to be pretty intense. Well, you guys are doing a great job.

Have you stood your spotter on his ear yet? No, not yet. No, Timmy's done a great job. I'll tell you, it's been cool to, you know, work with Tim this year. He's awesome. I mean, an awesome guy. I mean, you know him really well. And to get a couple wins under our belt together, I think it's just cool, you know,

to do that with somebody who, you know, I enjoyed listening to, even before I started racing at this level. when he was working with you and worked with other guys. And he showed me a photo. He and my dad, I think it was New Hampshire, like in 99 or something, or early 2000s that they were running a bush race together. And it's just super cool. You know, it's just really cool to have all that come full circle.

But no, I don't ever want to stand him up on his ear. He does a good job. He's an awesome person. I enjoyed my 10 years with Timmy does a great job. So in our house, we go back and watch the races. And my weekends are a lot different than what's, they used to be. So this week, I'm watching the race and the race gets over and I have the peanut gallery behind me, not even looking at the TV. And Piper was sitting by herself this week. And she

turns around when she hears the end of the race because she knows I'm done for the day that I don't need to watch anything else. And so we always watch the burnout because we critique them here. So she stands up and she turns around and she always watches the burnout with me. And she watches you go around. She says, is he going to do a burnout, Dad? I said, I don't know. I said, this guy, this Blaney guy, he's like halfway in. He's like not doing burnouts. And then we're kind of easing our way into burnouts.

And so you do your little wave and then you turn around and you do your burnout. And she's like, dad, that was pretty short. That wasn't very good. She's like, why are his burnout so weak? And I was like, what do you mean? She's like, it was so short, Daddy. You got to tell him to do a longer burnout. So message delivered.

your burnout was too short and it needs to be longer, she says. So just giving you some info. Okay. Now I know. I'm excited. I know now that Piper has to say all in the burnouts. And I will change it up. Hopefully I get another chance to do it here soon. And I will see if I can make it a little better. You know, I'm like halfway in between. So my burnouts aren't very good. I don't do them very often. And, you know, it's tough. But I like to do a little half one. You know, I thought a little spin around, a little burnout to the start, finish. Look, man.

Look, you can't be half in. You can't be, you can't be one foot in, one foot out. You can't please both sides. You either burn it down or you just get out. One or the other. I know, so I, fans give me a hard time for this too all the time. Like, you know, I do my little wave, you know, backwards down the front stretch to see everybody. And every person I see is like doing this.

Want me to do a burnout. And I'm like, ah, you know, it just goes against my better judgment. I got inmen in my ear telling me not to do burnouts. So I was like, I want to please the fans, but I also don't want to piss off Dale. But yeah, so I'm kind of in between. But I will try to go all in or not at all. So I'll take that advice. There you go.

Well, just no, Piper's critiquing you. But congratulations on everything you've done. And in the end, you did make that little girl's day that you gave the flag to. So that was, that's something that you consistently do over and over as you make that fans day. So congratulations on everything. Good luck with this stretch run. towards the playoffs and into playoffs. And hopefully we're talking to you again.

All right. Sounds good. Thanks, Kevin.