August 08, 2023 | By Curt Cavin
NASCAR Cup Series standout Ryan Blaney stood on the practice tee of Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Brickyard Crossing Golf Course last week showing off a sweet, fluid swing. A proclaimed 9-handicap golfer, not many of his shots go unintended, but sometimes that happens in a race car.
Take last year’s IMS road race as an example. In third place at the final restart of the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, Blaney positioned his No. 12 Team Penske Ford as perfectly as he could approaching Turn 1. He was on offense with his approach to that tight, right-handed corner as a driver should be, with a car charging on either side. He thought he was in good shape.
But like a well-struck tee shot, contact doesn’t always lead to a straight result. Mid-corner, Blaney found himself in a four-wide slugfest where barely two cars fit. The car on his left got pushed to the grass, and when it returned to the track, it bumped Blaney, and the result was unfortunate. Both cars got passed by the pack, with Blaney’s car turned around so it faced the wrong direction.
Blaney didn’t take another hit and the damage to the car was limited, but the impact to his standing in the race was severe. By the time he got the Team Penske Ford facing forward, he was chasing the pack to salvage what he could. He went from third place to 26th in the fracas.
“It can definitely be tough,” Blaney said of the IMS road course’s infamous first turn. “Whenever you have a super-long straightaway in the restart zone (approaching) a 90-degree corner under heavy braking, everyone pulls out of line because you have so much time to build momentum before you have to get into the braking zone, and there’s no room to go anywhere.
“Because sometimes you can only protect so much, everyone funnels in, and it gets tighter than it should be. Whether it’s the doors of the cars or the bumpers, people just use each other up.”
Blaney can laugh about last year’s trouble because that’s how stock car racing goes sometimes. In the prior restart, he got a similar three-wide, door-to-door squeeze only to escape without consequence and came through the scramble with third place.
“You can run two-wide through Turn 1, but it’s so tight you’re not going to get through three-wide,” Blaney said. “But everyone has tons of aspirations, especially at the end of the race when they’re trying their hardest.
“You just get shoved into places and shoved into people, and it’s such a big mess that you almost can’t pick out one driver specifically to be mad at because (the initial contact) usually comes from about three cars behind that guy, and you just get the short end of the stick.
“Sometimes you get caught being the bug on a windshield.”
Sometimes it works out for the best. In the 2021 race on the same circuit, Blaney emerged from a three-wide Turn 1 sandwich – again, he was the car in the middle – but he kept the car pointing forward. The chase was on from there and while he couldn’t catch AJ Allmendinger for the win, at least he finished second. Yes, second is racing’s first loser, but at least it salvaged the day. He said there are few things worse than being unceremoniously dropped through the order as he did in last year’s race.
“Then you have nothing to show for the day, and that’s frustrating,” he said. “All your hard work has gone down the drain.”
This weekend’s Verizon 200 at the Brickyard is on the IMS road course for the third consecutive year, and Blaney is one of the few who has excelled on both circuits here. As a series rookie driving for the Wood Brothers in 2015, he drove from 30th to finish 12th on the oval. After joining Roger Penske’s stock car organization for the 2018 season, he led three consecutive Brickyard 400s, finishing 11th in ’18 and seventh in ’19. In the latter, he led 19 laps.
A return to the Brickyard is a treat for Blaney regardless of the circuit being used. He has fond memories of coming to IMS when his father, sprint car legend Dave Blaney, raced in the Cup Series from 1999 through 2013, and now he gets the honor of racing here for Penske, whose company owns the track.
“Whether you’re racing on the road course or the oval, there’s just so much history here,” Blaney said. “You always want to do well at Indy, and there’s pressure to win everywhere we go in the Cup Series, but there’s a little extra motivation and pressure when it’s to win for the boss.”
Only Brad Keselowski has won a Cup Series race at IMS race for “The Captain.”
Also in play for Blaney this weekend is a chance to build momentum for NASCAR’s playoffs, which begins with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 3. He ranks 10th following the ninth-place finish Monday at Michigan International Speedway. He has the necessary race win to make the playoffs – May 29 at Charlotte Motor Speedway – but another win would be “a morale boost” for the team, he said.
Based on two strong previous races on the IMS road course, Blaney should be optimistic, and he is.
“There are a lot of lessons you can take from golf that apply to racing,” he said. “Move on from you last shot and not dwell on it.”
Which means, last year is in the past for Blaney. A new opportunity awaits.
Originally posted on indianapolismotorspeedway.com