Ryan Blaney eyes learning opportunity going wheel-to-wheel with Shane van Gisbergen at Watkins Glen

Ryan Blaney shared his thoughts on going against Shane Van Gisbergen at Watkins Glen International. The polesitter for Sunday's race called SVG the 'very best' when it comes to road course racing and hoped that some of that expertise might rub off on him.

Saturday's qualifying saw Blaney become the only Ford driver among the top-10, while he edged out Van Gisbergen by a narrow margin of 0.033 seconds. The New Zealander is the clear favourite entering the 90-lap event, having won three of the first four road courses this year.

The field is yet to figure out SVG's dominance, with seasoned road course specialists like Michael McDowell and Kyle Busch still coming up short against his mastery. Blaney now enters the fold and hopes to crack the code on Sunday.

Reflecting upon the same, Blaney had this to say in a post-qualifying press conference (via Youtube/Cup Scene, 6:01 onwards).

"At some point of the race hopefully, you know, we are racing each other to where I can maybe pick up a few things like seeing it with my own two eyes in front of me. And a lot of it is stuff you can't see like it's in the car that he does but I think maybe seeing some of the stuff from my seat, might be able to learn from that."

"So it's whenever you can learn from the best guys out there and obviously he is the very best at the road course stuff, it's always nice," he added.

Ryan Blaney's season has been a roller coaster ride so far. Despite seven DNFs across 23 starts, the Team Penske driver has consistently finished among the top-10, a eleven times in total. Saturday's pole marks his second of the season, as well as Team Penske's 150th.

With a sole win at Nashville securing his playoff spot, Blaney currently ranks seventh in points, while Van Gisbergen sits at 25th. However, the Kiwi driver has seven more playoff points than Blaney's 10.

Fans can watch Sunday's(August 10) 90-lap event on USA and HBO Max at 2 PM ET.

---

Ryan Blaney shares Bubba Wallace jab after pole at The Glen

Ryan Blaney had some lighthearted banter to share after securing pole at Watkins Glen. He recalled a comment made by Bubba Wallace, joking that Shane Van Gisbergen now had even more incentive to surpass Blaney on Sunday.

"Bubba actually came up to me after qualifying and said, "Congrats, but now he's going to make you look really bad." So I was like, "Hey, one day at a time. I beat him one day," Ryan Blaney said via aforementioned source. [5:42 onwards]

The last time SVG pulled off a dominant road course win was a Mexico City, where he finished a whopping 16 seconds ahead of the nearest rival.