Denny Hamlin believes that Ryan Blaney and Ford are on the right track after winning at Pocono Raceway on Sunday. On the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin shared his thoughts on how Blaney and Ford have raced over the last few weeks.
“They’re figuring things out,” Hamlin said. “You got Iowa that he won, this is the second win they said in five weeks. He’s getting on a roll certainly. …The way he was at the end of the playoffs last year, that was exceptional for him. He was the fastest car on all those short tracks by a decent chunk. But (he’s) certainly putting himself back in the picture of being a contender on all race tracks like he was a few years ago.”
In the last five weeks, Blaney has won two races and finished in the top 10 four times. After winning at Pocono on Sunday, the 30-year-old talked about hitting his stride at the right time.
“I feel like the last two months we’ve been spectacular,” Blaney said during his post-race press conference. “Speed in our cars has been great. A couple finishes might not reflect that. It’s really none of our doing. Gateway we had a great shot to win, didn’t really work out. New Hampshire, had a great run, got spun out.
“I am really feeling good about the speed in our cars right now across the board at Team Penske. I feel like we’ve found a lot of stuff. I talked the last month of short tracks, I think our short track program is fantastic and we need to work on the mile-and-a-half plus racetracks. We come today to a big two-and-a-half-miler and win it.”
Can Ryan Blaney be a consistent winner?
Blaney, the defending Cup Series champion, seems poised to go on a run during the playoffs. But does he feel like he’s a driver that can win consistently?
“You always try to improve your mindset, your skill set week to week, year to year,” Blaney said. “I feel like when you’re young and you’re getting into it, all you care about is pushing the gas pedal down and you lose focus on the end goal, the task at hand. I feel as you get older, it’s easier to become smarter about things of looking at the bigger picture, how you approach weekends.”
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