Blaney 'pretty elated' to be fifth in Cup Series points despite challenges

Ryan Blaney is thus far having a tale of two seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series.

On one hand, his box score shows that he is the only Team Penske driver who's winless. Additionally, four race results are marked with red ink, which signifies he did not see the checkered flag.

But on the other hand, Blaney and the No. 12 team are fifth in the championship standings at the All-Star break. He's picked up two stage wins and has the second-most stage points in the series (110 to Kyle Larson’s 128), and he’s just under 200 laps led through 12 races.

It’s the age-old tale of results versus performance.

“Honestly, I’m pretty elated that we’re fifth in points with the year that we’ve had, as far as four DNFs,” Blaney said at North Wilkesboro Speedway. “That’s four last-place finishes with all my DNFs. I think that shows how well we’ve been running in the races that we haven’t had issues. I’ve been really happy with our effort as the No. 12 team and all of Team Penske. I’d like to win, obviously. I hope it’s coming soon.”

Blaney finished third in the two races leading into Sunday night’s $1 million All-Star Race. Once in the last five races Blaney finished outside the top five – he was involved in a crash at Talladega Superspeedway. It's one of his four DNFs. An engine failure was responsible for two of the other three.

More NASCAR

Prime Video sets premiere date for Larson ‘Double’ documentary

Road course ace van Gisbergen set for Truck Series race at Watkins Glen

The RACER Mailbag, April 22

“It’s been nice to be running up front and to have really good runs in four of the last five events, and be in contention to win the race,” he continued. “We just have to keep doing that. I’m really proud of our effort. Hopefully we get over the little bit [of] – I don’t want to call it bad luck, but the unfortunate things happening. I love where we’re at as a group, and I hope we can continue to perform at this level.

“And if you keep performing like that, I think you’re going to find victory lane. We just have to keep doing our job.”

The comments should calm the nerves of his fan base and outside observers. Blaney was further clued into the passion of some of his race fans earlier this year when he made an appearance on the "Door Bumper Clear" podcast and learned the backstory of some of the chatter he was hearing about toasters and bathtubs because of bad results.

A goose egg in the win column is the only downside to Blaney's start to the season. He was even included in a conversation early this week (on the Performance Racing Network, a radio broadcast partner of NASCAR) about drivers to be concerned about. This was despite his top-five position in points, while others, such as Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, were much further down in points and more inconsistent in performance.

“You always have people who ask, 'Should we be worried about this group or that group?'” Blaney said with a smile. “I don’t know how much more you want – I guess they want us winning races. But I think of 'would have, could have, should have.' If we don’t have four DNFs and just ran 10th in all those races, we’re [pretty] near leading the points. But everyone can say that.

“No, I think we’re doing a great job. I’m really happy with the group we’ve got, the guys that do it every week. We’ve just got to keep being consistent, keep finding speed and keep executing, and hopefully, as I said, we’ll be able to find victory lane and join the rest of the Penske guys who have been able to do it recently.”

Blaney, the 2023 Cup Series champion, is a former winner of the Coca-Cola 600 – the next points-paying event on the calendar after the All-Star Race.