Month after month, Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 team produced one of the fastest cars on track, only to have fortune slip through their fingers at the worst possible moments. For example, in Homestead-Miami Speedway, where his engine suddenly let go and produced a plume of white smoke, or in Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the multi-car wreck wiped him out and produced another DNF. Every minor setback. Even at the Coca-Cola 600, he couldn’t have the opportunity to even contest for a win after being mired in a crash sparked by Daniel Suarez.

“It stinks. It’s two unfortunate weekends in a row where I thought we at least had a shot to get better and run close to top 10,” Blaney said after another tough outing at Charlotte. What made it tougher for the 2022 champion was to see his teammates already securing their wins. Josh Berry, Austin Cindric, and Joey Logano had all been to victory lane.

However, Lady Luck finally smiled on the Penske driver as he notched a dominating win at Nashville Superspeedway last Sunday. There was more to his win than just leading 139 laps and the pit strategy. It was about the collective effort and resilience that the #12 group has shown. And it finally materialized into a win in the Musci City.

Ryan Blaney and the #12 team have that championship mentality

Five DNFs mired by engine failures and crashes could crush the hopes and ambition of any good team and a driver. But the #12 team knew that they had the car that could win the race, and despite the setback, they kept on grinding. They were rewarded for that at Nashville, and for Blaney, at team spirit at the #12 camp is what has fueled his charge so far this season. Speaking to Kevin Harvick, he shared what the team mentality was within the #12 camp after consecutive setbacks.

“It would get frustrating, you know… Team Penske and our 12 team is doing a great job. Everyone’s communicating well, everybody’s really relying on each other. They trust each other. So that part has been great. But the frustration side was like, man, what do we got to do to get these finishes we deserve … everything we did, just something would happen, kind of out of our control,” Blaney said in the interview.

He didn’t sugarcoat how close he’d been leading laps at Homestead until a catastrophic engine failure left him in 36th place, nor did he pretend that a Charlotte wreck didn’t sting. Yet even as that frustration bubbled over, he made sure to thank the very crew that kept showing up: “I feel like Team Penske and our 12 team is doing a great job. We wrecked at Charlotte last week, didn’t finish the race, but they never got down. They looked forward to going to Nashville and prepared like always… they just have a great, great mentality. We never get too down on ourselves, so it’s nice to kind of get over that hump, and hopefully it smooths out from here.”

This has been a trend for the #12 team. Remember last year when Blaney lost out to Tyler Reddick at Homestead on the very last lap. It was a crushing blow to his hopes of making it in the championship 4. But he didn’t dwell on it, came back strong, battled with Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott at Martinsville Speedway, which was a do-or-die race for him. And guess what he got? He overcame that loss in Miami. This is the kind of resolve and drive the entire #12 team has, which was on display at Nashville as well.

Blaney is placed 8th in the playoffs standings, but with a win in hand, he’s locked himself in for the knockout stages. More importantly, he now has eight playoff points, and that is huge as it is the only safety cushion he will have in the playoffs if one of his races goes bad. With five top 5s and a win, this win came at just the right time for the driver. Now that the Cup Series is headed for the stretch of road course races, it would’ve been an uphill climb for him to secure the playoff position.

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Blaney accepts his weakness on the road courses

After the race weekend at Michigan International Speedway, the Cup Series will have a stretch of road course races. Starting off with trips to Mexico City and Chicago City street race, and followed by the twists and turns of Sonoma and Watkins Glen. Although there are races on traditional tracks such as Dover and Brickyard, this stretch of the season is indeed risky, especially for those hanging onto their playoffs dream on points.

Ryan Blaney is not a road-course ringer, and he wasn’t ashamed of admitting it. “Yeah, I’m not the best road course racer. I’m average at the best, I work really hard on it. Like trying to figure out where I can be better and compare myself to the good guys. I’m working hard on it, I mean that’s the biggest thing, I need to get better at road courses.”

In the Next Gen era, his best result at COTA is a sixth-place finish. At Sonoma, Blaney has a couple of top 10s, whereas Watkins Glen hasn’t been good to him in recent years. Add fixtures like the Mexico race and the street racing in the Windy City, the dynamics and the preparation required for this style change drastically. With the likes of Shane van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger, and Tyler Reddick all eyeing to bag their first win, it would’ve been tough for the Penske driver to get that one big win. So, he is in the clear with a win in the bag, hoping to improve on his road racing skills with upcoming events.