“A lot of unknowns”: Team Penske’s Travis Geisler unsure about Brickyard after Ryan Blaney’s win at Pocono

Ryan Blaney reached the victory lane for the second time this season at Pocono Raceway on Sunday (July 14). Following the victory, Team Penske’s competition director, Travis Geisler, expressed uncertainty regarding this weekend’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For the first time since 2020, NASCAR returned to the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval. After running the previous three Cup races on the road course, the NextGen Car will hit the 2.5-mile-long asphalt and brick oval track for the first time in NASCAR history.

Speaking to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about the Indianapolis oval race, Geisler admitted that due to the long absence of the IMS oval track from the NASCAR schedule, there are many variables and unknown factors that could affect Blaney and his team’s performance.

“I think it's definitely an indication of your package being pretty decent. When you can run well here, you usually can take it to Indy and be okay. But, you know, nobody's been there in a long time, and nobody's been there in one of these cars. So, there's a lot of unknowns going into next week, and kind of a short practice period. And hopefully, we can repeat again,” Team Penske’s competition director said.

Ryan Blaney’s Pocono win completes the weekend sweep for Team Penske as Scott McLaughlin and Will Power won IndyCar Series races at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. Reacting on the weekend sweep for the 87-year-old Roger Penske, Geisler said:

“It was an incredible weekend for us with the Indy cars winning both races at Iowa and then us getting this one. It's a great sweep.”

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Ryan Blaney reflects on his Pocono win

The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion had a strong car as he led the final 44 laps and held off seven-time Pocono winner Denny Hamlin and Chicago Street Race winner Alex Bowman in the closing laps to Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Pocono Raceway.

Reflecting on the Pocono win in a post-race interview, Blaney said (via NASCAR.com):

“Feel like we’ve gotten to a great pace and speed the last couple months. Honestly thought we let a couple races slip away from us I thought we should have won. It’s just so cool to win here again. Won here seven years ago for my first Cup win, so awesome to be back,”

With a Pocono win, Ryan Blaney moved to seventh place in the Cup Series points table with 627 points.