"Not all by chance": Ryan Blaney hails Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski for superspeedway supremacy

Ryan Blaney, a 3x winner at Talladega Superspeedway, recently revealed what it takes to win at one of NASCAR's most iconic racetracks. Ahead of this Sunday's playoff race at the superspeedway, the Team Penske driver was asked whether winning at Talladega is something only a few can achieve or whether it's something that he views as 'a crapshoot.'

The journalist backed his question by pointing to the fact that only one non-playoff driver has won at Talladega since 2014.

Blaney claimed that at Talladega, the possibility for "a potential surprise winner" was higher than at other racetracks. The #12 driver said that he doesn't view it as 'a complete crapshoot' as he pointed to some of the current drivers who excel at tracks like Talladega.

"You have your guys who run really well at these racetracks, and you have your guys that maybe struggle a little bit as far as decision-making and all that stuff. I don’t think it’s a secret that some folks excel at this type of racing. I think Denny Hamlin is great. Brad Keselowski is great. Joey Logano is awesome. For years and years those guys have found themselves at the front of these things at the end of them and that’s just not all by chance," Blaney described.

Blaney mentioned that drivers like Denny Hamlin, Logano, and Keselowski stay clean and don't get into wrecks while remaining at the front towards the end. To him, that's just how they strategize their race.

Hamlin has five superspeedway wins to his name, including 3 Daytona 500s, while Brad Keselowski has seven. The defending Cup champion claimed that a small percentage of winning at Talladega is a matter of 'a crapshoot.'

Blaney stated that there are drivers who are comfortable with superspeedway racing and others, who struggle a bit more than the rest.

Ryan Blaney claims his team is better this year than his championship-winning 2023 campaign

During the press interaction on Saturday at Talladega, Ryan Blaney opened up on his playoffs mentality in 2024. He revealed that he goes into every weekend with his team wanting and expecting to win.

Blaney claimed that in his opinion, the #12 team is capable of winning every single race. In fact, he said that this year, the team is even more strong than they were last season, when he went on to win the championship in Phoenix.

"Our cars are faster. We’re gelling as a team better. We don’t come to these places expecting to win, we just come and try to do our job the best we can do. Do you execute well on pit road? Do you try to make more good decisions than bad decisions out there? You’re obviously going to have some moves that don’t work for you and that’s just the way it is, but you just have confidence going to these places and it’s the same every week," Blaney described.

At this point of the playoffs last year, four races in, Ryan Blaney had only one top-10 finish to his name. He won at Talladega and booked his spot in the Round of 8. But this year, he has already registered two top 5 finishes, at Atlanta and more recently at Kansas.

So if he could repeat his result from Talladega last season, Ryan Blaney could be once again in contention for winning the NASCAR Cup Series title.