“We had a rough two months”: Ryan Blaney ready to embrace ‘team of summer’ tag after Iowa win

Ryan Blaney acknowledged that the #12 team had a rough two-month patch but now might be the time the team is aiming to surpass where they were last year in the summertime, with the pressure of finishing better. Blaney is in his seventh Cup season with Team Penske and his tenth in NASCAR overall.

He clinched the 2023 NASCAR Cup Championship after a strong second-place finish at Phoenix, highlighted by two playoff wins and another during the regular season. In the current season, Blaney won his first race in the Iowa Corn 350 race.

Blaney's crew chief, Jonathan Hassler asserted his belief in the team's prospects, suggesting they could potentially become "the team of the summer." The renewed optimism came especially after their first win of the season, following a disappointing loss at Gateway two weeks earlier, where they ran out of fuel and missed a win.

Before that, Blaney fell short in a photo finish second to Daniel Suarez in Atlanta in the tightest three-wide finish in NASCAR Cup Series history. Bouncing back with a victory boosted the morale of the defending champions.

Discussing the topic, Ryan Blaney was recently asked if the Iowa win is just the beginning and if 'the team of the summer' is going to be their new motto. Talking to "TeamBlaney Podcast" host, Adam Rogers, Blaney said (via "teamblaney" on X),

"Hope so. [...] We just had a rough two months like everyone goes through that struggle period. And we just didn't want to go through that anymore, right? So we tried to figure out, set goals for this year." [at 0:20]

And one of the goals was, 'hey, let's not be where we were at last year, this year in the summertime. Let's try and run better, let's compete for wins in the summer and things like that'," he added.

Owning to their recent victory in Iowa, Ryan Blaney feels that the 2024 season can even surpass his championship-winning 2023 in terms of success.

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Ryan Blaney believes 2024 is going to be better than his 2023 season

Despite a halt of 16 races before Ryan Blaney won his first race of the season, The #12 driver believes his crew has geared up to perform better than last year. He is optimistic, considering their current speed and how the team is executing races. Featuring on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Blaney said,

"I think we're doing that better than we did at this time last year. Everyone's executing really well. I think the speed's a little bit better. I think our group is in an even better spot, the mindset is really good right now." [at 0:22]

With all the confidence shown by his crew chief and Ryan Blaney, it will be interesting to see if they can defend their 2023 crown this year.