“I still feel like the defending champion”: Ryan Blaney talks about 2024 NASCAR championship playoffs amidst recent wreck

Despite last week’s Darlington wreck, Ryan Blaney has expressed his mindset as defending NASCAR Cup Series champion heading into NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. The 2024 postseason kicks off with Quaker State 400 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday (September 8).

Ahead of the 2024 NASCAR playoffs, Ryan Blaney is confident as a defending champion and believes in his #12 Team Penske abilities to reclaim the title. In a media interaction, he said that even as the new season unfolds, he still considers himself in title defense mode.

Speaking to FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass on Wednesday at Playoffs Media Day, Ryan Blaney opened up about how he feels like a defending champion:

“I still feel like the defending champion. We got closer to the playoffs, and playoff talks started to come about, and all these things come out of Blaney trying to defend his title and stuff like that. So, you're still the defending champion for the whole year until someone takes away from you. So yeah, we're still in title defense.”

Blaney, who drives the #12 Ford for Team Penske, won the NASCAR championship for the first time in 2023 and is in contention to repeat as a champion this year.

His title defense campaign has been markedly more impressive, with two wins and seven top-five finishes in 26 races. He finished inside the top-five in the regular season points standings.

---

Ryan Blaney is optimistic of his chances to defend his NASCAR Cup title

Team Penske driver mentioned that he's enjoying the pressure of other 15 playoffs drivers trying to take the title from him but is using it as motivation to defend it. He believes that his team has a strong chance to crown as a champion again.

In the aforementioned interview, Blaney said:

“How do we try to do it again? retain it. But I like that feeling. I think everyone in our group loves that feeling of everyone's trying to take it away from you. So hopefully we can make that motivate us and try to; we have a great shot of doing it again, so we just have to perform like I know we can. But yes, I still feel like it's a big title defense.”

It will be interesting to see how Ryan Blaney begins his title defense campaign with the NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.