Defending NASCAR Cup champion Ryan Blaney comments on Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick post P3 finish in Las Vegas

NASCAR Cup Series reigning champion Ryan Blaney took third place this weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway race behind the No. 45 Toyota driven by Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson's No. 5 Chevrolet.

In the post-race interview published on X (formerly Twitter) by Fronstretch, Blaney gave an overview of his performance and shared his thoughts on the race. The Team Penske driver recognized the performances of his rivals and said:

“We didn’t have anything for the 45 or 5 today.”

However, Ryan Blaney was pleased by the progress of his team during the day, saying:

"Obviously I wish we got more, but we got better all day, like from where we started, where we qualified. I thought we ended kind of our best, probably, so we were able to kind of get in front of the 19 and the 11 who was pretty good. "

Even though the overall Ford cars' performance was at an acceptable level for him, Blaney pointed out the competitiveness of Chevrolet and Toyota cars.

"Chevys are still fast, Toyotas are still fast, and Ford we had a good showing today too we just got a little more work to do," said Blaney.

Ryan Blaney’s third place was his best-ever result in Las Vegas, and he highlighted the race as a good learning experience for the coming weeks. He said:

"That was good. I'm just proud of the effort of getting better all day, so that part was good. Just that's what we can ask for is try to get better , so hopefully it's good learning for the next couple weeks."

---

Ryan Blaney reflects on "cool" Atlanta race finish

At the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Ryan Blaney lost to Daniel Suarez by 0.003 seconds in a very tight finish. The No. 12 driver was involved in a thrilling three-wide battle in the final few laps of the race with Kyle Busch and Suarez.

Even though he lost the race by a narrow margin, Blaney appreciated the clean and exciting competition. He said (via motorsports.com):

“What a cool finish. Appreciate the fans for sticking around. That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that, race clean, three-wide finish to the end. Happy for Daniel. That was cool to see. Fun racing with Kyle. I can’t complain. I’ve won them by very, very little, too, so I can’t complain too much when I lose them by that much.”