Ryan Blaney explains how he gets in the zone towards a race’s end in NASCAR

Ryan Blaney won the inaugural Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway last week and became the first driver to win maiden races at Iowa in all three national series of NASCAR. Recently, the reigning Cup Series champion opened up about what was going through his mind as he led the final 80 laps of the race, en route to his first victory of the season.

Ryan Blaney is currently in his seventh full season driving the number 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske. The Hartford, Ohio native has won 11 races at the Cup level so far, including a victory in the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 in 2023.

Blaney also won the NASCAR All-Star Race last year. Besides that, Blaney has visited the victory lane seven times in the Xfinity Series and four times in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

In an episode of the "Team Blaney Podcast", the host, Steve Mezz was curious about how the driver manages distractions and concentrates on driving his machine while being the race leader. Ryan Blaney's simple answer was that he would usually 'tune out' in such situations.

"I feel like you just get in the zone, you just kinda tune out," explained Blaney. "You just log laps and I would ask for a lap update; how many to go...every so often, maybe 20 laps or so and then just trying to manage the gap to the 24 (William Byron)."

"I was fine with him being within eighth (or) tenth of a second. I didn't really want to have to push any hard on that. (I) tried to save our stuff as much as I could because I know if it went green, we were gonna get to lap cars; that's gonna be the race...I didn't want that to happen," he added.

Owing to his triumph, Ryan Blaney became the second Team Penske driver to book a spot in the 2024 playoff rumble. He now has the opportunity to bag a back-to-back race win and a back-to-back shot at the Championship title.

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Ryan Blaney and William Byron look back at the final laps at Iowa Speedway

Ryan Blaney recalled pushing hard to hold off a fast-charging William Byron as the latter was running on four fresh tires, while the former was on two older tires. Reflecting on the same, the Ford pilot said in the aforementioned podcast episode,

"I did have to push a little bit harder (on) the last few laps; I was starting to struggle a little bit on the two tires. Luckily we had a little bit left pace-wise." [at 1:33]

Blaney's crew gave him two fresh tires when he committed to the pit lane, following the yellow on lap 260, and Byron got four fresh stickers. Even then, he wasn't able to pass Ryan Blaney. However, Byron was not surprised at all. Calling Blaney's car the fastest, the Hendrick Motorsports driver said (as quoted by Racer.com):

"He was probably the best car. Once the 5 (Kyle Larson) was out... I felt like him (Blaney) and the 5 were right there together... and I wasn’t surprised. I don’t think tires mattered in that instance, because he was the best car probably.”

"It felt like when I got 15 or so laps on my tires, I just couldn’t close the ga," Byron added.

Currently, Ryan Blaney sits 7th in the Cup Series point standings with 501 points to his name. On the other hand, Byron is 4th with 537 points. The duo will be seen in action on June 23 in the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.