“You never know for sure in this sport”: Ryan Blaney’s crew chief makes his ‘strong’ feelings known amid dominant championship start

Ryan Blaney's crew chief Jonathan Hassler laid bare his feelings about projected and actual results following a strong start to the Championship 4 weekend. The #12 Ford Mustang driver outperformed the grid during the practice session, clinching a top speed of 132.48 mph.

The defending Cup Series champion is gearing up for his second consecutive Phoneix appearance as a title contender. He aced the 2023 XFINITY 500 at Martinsville to safeguard his title fight and repeated the domination this year to punch his Championship 4 race ticket.

Blaney is the second Team Penske driver in the playoffs. His teammate Joey Logano registered his entry by winning the Round of 8 opener at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. However, the former driver who emerged from a dire must-win situation at Martinsville put forth a remarkable run at Phoenix's 1-mile oval.

That said, Ryan Blaney's crew chief Jonathan Hassler expressed his 'strong' thoughts about Team Penske's dominant #12 car while outlining the uncertainty of results in NASCAR. He said (via Speedway Digest on X, formerly Twitter):

“I felt pretty strongly coming to this week that we’d be able to have some speed, but you never know for sure in this sport, or the times you do are pretty few and far between. So, a little bit of relief. That’s where we expected to be, but you never really know until the number goes on the board. It certainly invigorates the whole team to see our number there at the top of the board,” Hassler said (22:31).

While Blaney led the charts, Logano began his weekend in ninth, being 0.149 seconds off the pace.

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Ryan Blaney opens up on his relationship with "fiery" competitor Joey Logano amid imminent title fight

Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, and Austin Cindric drive for Roger Penske. While they strive to keep their team atop the leaderboard, the bigger picture is that they are rivals when the Cup Series title is in question.

However, Blaney underscored having a cordial relationship with the two-time Cup Series champion teammate. During a media session, Blaney talked about motorsports being a tricky affair where the driver directly fights against the teammate. The defending Cup Series champion drew a comparison with the NFL, elaborating on how their teams work differently from NASCAR garages.

"Motorsports is tricky situations because you're competing directly against your teammates sometimes, but you're still racing for your company umbrella, where as far as like you're two wide receivers in the NFL, you might want to get more touches than that guy or get paid more than that guy, but if you do well, he does well, your team is still going to win right. So, it is a little bit different. But Joey and I have always worked really well together. We're still fiery competitors," Blaney said (via SpeedFreaks on YouTube at 6:39).

Ryan Blaney is 312 laps away from potentially becoming the first driver to win back-to-back Cup Series championships since the new playoff format was introduced in 2014.