"Obviously a toss up": Ryan Blaney comments on playoff tracks which worry him 

Ryan Blaney recently opened up on the strengths of Team Penske and what he's worried about ahead of the playoffs. Blaney recently ended Penske's win drought as he sensationally took the checkered flag towards the very end at Daytona.

Following his win, Blaney appeared in a conversation with Kevin Harvick. The former NASCAR driver asked the 2023 Cup champion about the strength of his organisation, which has won the last three Cup driver titles, as well as his worries about the playoffs.

Ryan Blaney claimed he's looking forward to all the tracks in the playoffs, highlighting Gateway. He further appreciated the 2nd place in the regular season standings despite 7 DNFs as a team effort.

The #12 driver said his 2nd place finish shows how strong his team has been. And with Penske, Blaney said they understand the need to be better and improve, which all comes down to people.'

As for the tracks he's worried about in the playoffs, Ryan Blaney said:

"The only tracks I'd be worried about is, if you get to Talladega in the round of 8, that's obviously a toss up. You never know what can happen at the ROVAL in the round of 12. You never know what can happen anywhere. I mean, you can go have a bad week anywhere you go. But I think all the tracks we've really done well at, I think our road course program has gotten way better. Honestly, it's just a matter of going and doing our job and just executing the way that I know this team can do it. And hopefully it's great to have all of our cars in it." [4:30]

He claimed that having all their cars in the playoff lines up well for their goals. Blaney further emphasised that it comes down to people's 'willingness to compromise' and learning to come up with the best things for the races.

Ryan Blaney opens up on how important it was to finish second in points for the #12 team

With his win at Daytona, Ryan Blaney took his tally of superspeedway wins to 5. But despite accumulating a notable number of wins, it's worth mentioning that Blaney has had his fair share of mishaps in the plate races.

This was something Kevin Harvick mentioned to him during their conversation, that with superspeedway racing, it's always 50/50. Harvick asked Blaney if he was aware of that going into the race while being in the tight battle for the second spot in points.

"That was job number one for us going in the weekend. We knew we could get to second racing. The #9, the #5, the #11. We also knew we could possibly lose a couple spots if we had a bad night. So it was a big swing in points. There was a group of us that were super close. So yeah, goal one was focusing on the stages," Blaney described. [3:00]

He mentioned that after getting 'a decent amount' of stage points in the first two stages, it became a case of figuring out where his competition was, apart from just winning the race.

Having said that, he claimed winning the race was 'the cherry on top' as he emphasised finishing second in points being his number one priority heading to Daytona.