Ryan Blaney profitable the 2023 NASCAR Cup Collection championship would not have been a practical situation in the beginning of the playoffs final fall.
Blaney sat simply thirteenth in factors after the regular-season finale at Daytona, however thanks to 5 top-six finishes within the last six races of the season, he was capable of catapult himself not simply into NASCAR’s championship race, however to the championship podium itself.
Coming into the 2024 season, Blaney had the very best expectations of his profession positioned on his shoulders. Representing probably the most prestigious auto-racing sequence within the nation as champion isn’t any simple job, however Blaney appeared to embrace the position over the primary 4 weeks of the season, amassing three top-five finishes and main 12 laps within the season-opening Daytona 500.
The final 9 races for Blaney have featured lower than stellar outcomes, although, with the No. 12 automobile coming dwelling contained in the top-10 simply twice up to now 9 occasions.
Moderately than hitting the panic button, Blaney and the No. 12 crew have good cause to chill out. Not solely does Blaney nonetheless sit 55 factors above the playoff cutline – almost a full race up on seventeenth place driver Bubba Wallace – however he’s the defending winner of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, the following race on NASCAR’s calendar.
Together with being the defending winner of considered one of NASCAR’s crown jewel occasions, Blaney’s 2023 and 2024 season have a couple of fascinating parallels that ought to ease any discomfort felt by the driving force or his crew.
Heading into the Coca-Cola 600 in 2023, Blaney sat seventh within the Cup Collection factors standings. Heading into this yr’s version of the Coke 600, Blaney sits eighth. Whereas he had collected two extra top-10 finishes at this level within the season final yr, he has proven comparable pace to begin 2024 as he did in 2023.
Blaney will surely prefer to have already got a win or two to his credit score this season, however the truth that it took till Charlotte for him to win his first race in an eventual championship season proves that he has a useful trait for racing in modern-day NASCAR – he can get sizzling on the proper time. Whether or not it’s on a late-race restart or the ultimate two rounds of the playoffs, making the precise strikes on the proper time, as Blaney did final yr to win the championship, is what pays in a sport that’s turning into more and more much less about consistency and extra about spurts of pace.
Whereas Blaney did lead 163-of -400 laps in final yr’s Coca-Cola 600, he did not take the lead for good till the third stage. Regardless of a comparatively mediocre season by means of the primary 30 races of 2023, Blaney and the No. 12 crew got here alive over the ultimate six races, which culminated of their first championship.
The similarities between Blaney’s 2023 and 2024 season by means of the primary 13 races could find yourself that means nothing, but when Blaney can discover a strategy to win Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 for the second yr in a row, it could spell bother for a subject that lastly views Blaney as a perennial title menace.
