Ryan Blaney relieved after "nothing wacky happened" in Nashville amid 'rough year' in 2025
Ryan Blaney recently opened up on his first win of the season at Nashville. The Team Penske driver had been the only driver from his organization without a win until last Sunday.
Before Nashville, Blaney had come close to the victory lane on many occasions this season. He had five top-five finishes, four of which came within the five races between Darlington and Kansas before he finally got the big one at Nashville.
Following his win, Blaney was asked whether he had tweaked something or done anything different from the week before at Charlotte, where he had a DNF. The #12 driver said he didn't do anything different, and it was just a case of things not going "sideways" for him.
"Everything just kind of went smoothly, went like a normal race should go and we executed like we should and the speed in our car was good. It's just, you know, you don't it feels like those races for our team were hard to come by. Just like nothing funky happening or like nothing playing out, you know, the normal way. But it's nice, it finally went that way tonight, the fastest car won the race and nothing wacky happened that we had a you know, couldn't win the race. But, no, I mean, didn't do anything different last week from this week," Blaney described. [2:10]
He claimed he loves his team because it'd been a "rough year" for the #12 team. But despite that, Ryan Blaney said his crew never thinks negatively. Instead, they focus on the next week and prepare with intentions of winning the race, "like the championship team that they are".
Blaney emphasized the winner's mentality and mindset his team has, which makes him proud to be a part of. He deemed his team "a special group" who won't budge in the highest of highs and lowest of lows.
They simply focus on the next week and executing their jobs to the best of their abilities.
Ryan Blaney relieved after 'nothing crazy happened' in Nashville
Speaking further about his win at Nashville, Ryan Blaney claimed it means a lot to him because of his "pretty rocky" year in 2025.
Blaney touched on the misfortune the #12 team has had, where they simply couldn't finish races or close out the deal.
"I think that was more it's kind of like I don't want to say relief but just like okay finally like nothing crazy happened and we were able to just run our own race and bring the speed and execute and do our job very very well and so yeah it was nice to finally get in victory lane tonight after a rocky start to the year," Blaney mentioned. [1:00]
It's worth mentioning that while it took Ryan Blaney until the 14th week to get his first win in 2025, his first of 2024 came in week 17th at Iowa. In fact, his first win of 2023 also came in the 14th week at Charlotte.
Ryan Blaney went on to win the NASCAR Cup title that season.