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Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney ended his 59-race winless streak by taking the checkered flag for the Coca-Cola 600. Blaney held off William Byron to win NASCAR's crown jewel event at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday (May 29).
Jonathan Hassler, crew chief for the #12 team, was 'relieved' to see Ryan Blaney drive down the victory lane. Hassler explained that the win was much needed to enter the playoffs and build on the momentum for the rest of the season.
On being questioned if he was relieved or excited, the #12 crew chief said in the post-race press conference:
"Probably relieved more than excited at this point. I think the excitement will maybe come in the next few days, but certainly glad to get a win and get ourselves locked into the playoffs and give ourselves an opportunity to go out and kind of stretch our legs a little bit and continue to make this race team better."
Ryan Blaney's last points-paying victory came in the fall of 2021 at Daytona International Speedway. Since then he had only won the NASCAR All-Star Race in 2022.
The Memorial Day victory lifted the weight of a 59-race winless streak on Blaney, who had come close to winning multiple races. The #12 Team Penske driver said in the front-stretch interview:
"You start to get to feel like you can’t win anymore. We hadn’t won in awhile and that can get hard. I want to thank the 12 (team) for believing in me."
Blaney finally scored his elusive eighth NASCAR Cup Series win.
Ryan Blaney's crew chief explains the change in perspective after the win
Last year, Ryan Blaney managed to qualify for the playoffs on points, without a points-paying win. He advanced into the round of eight, but couldn't make qualify further.
Crew chief Hassler explained that this year, the victory at Charlotte will allow the team to experiment with different concepts for the rest of the regular season.
He said:
"I tell people a lot, we talk about the pressure of the playoffs, and I tell people, try to explain that our playoffs last year started eight, ten weeks before the playoffs actually started because we were the highest car on points, but we knew there was going to be a lot of different winners."
He added:
"So our focus, our kind of -- you kind of have to play things a little bit more conservative when you're in that position. Now we're in a really good spot with the win that we can go out and try maybe some different concepts we have at some tracks coming up and certainly branch out and try to be a little bit better."
Blaney's win at Charlotte Motor Speedway also marked Hassler's first Cup Series victory.
