Is Phoenix a must-win for Blaney's Cup Series title hopes?

Ryan Blaney is starting to see his window to the NASCAR Cup Series championship close.

Blaney admitted Saturday at Phoenix Raceway that he agrees, “a little bit,” with his crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, that this weekend could be a must-win race. Team Penske’s No. 12 team trails leader Kyle Larson by 85 points with less than a handful of races to go, and Blaney sits fifth in the standings. It means he not only has to overcome his points deficit, but beat four other drivers in the process.

“It’s definitely getting down to that time; we only have four [races] left,” said Blaney. “The points that we’re out, I think you do kind of have to treat it like a must-win. It’s going to be really hard if you only gain four, five, six points on him this weekend. That’s hard. So, you need to try to take big chunks with the 20 bonuses [for winning], and you hope you outscore him in the stages too, and keep chipping away.

“Yeah, I would kind of categorize this as a big championship moment for our team. If we can win this weekend, I think we can hopefully keep chipping away at it. If you don’t win this weekend, the job is exponentially harder going into the next three weeks.”

Blaney won't count on Larson and his team having issues, and he certainly won't wait to see if they do. Larson has had a historic start to the Chase, averaging 2.8 through six races.

In fact, Blaney is treating the rest of the season as if Larson won't make a mistake, despite what the law of averages might try to convince people of. And that means it will be all about winning, and probably more than once.

The last win for Blaney and his team was at New Hampshire. It was the second-to-last regular-season race. In the Chase, Blaney has four top-10 finishes in six races, with his best coming a week ago at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he finished third.

Fortunately for Blaney, he has won the last two races at Phoenix.

“I don’t feel any more pressure [to win this weekend],” said Blaney. “I take it as a compliment that people are trying to chase you, so that means you’re doing something well. So, I don’t go into places where we’ve run well and are like, ‘Man, don’t mess this up. We always run well here. It’s going to look bad if we don’t run well.’

“I just look at it as, ‘Hey, we have a great starting point. Let’s continue to build off of this and be confident in unloading. I think it’s better when people are chasing you and kind of watching your car through practice of what your car does really well. That’s flattering.”

Blaney was fastest in Cup Series practice.