NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 9, 2026

Ryan Blaney

Pit Lane Interview

Q. Third on the day after a Stage 1 win and leading the most laps. We saw you get buried in the pack there with a four-tire stop mid-race. Was that ultimately what set your day in the wrong direction?

RYAN BLANEY: I don't think so really. It set us back a little bit, but I thought it was going to play out pretty good. I got really loose into 3 one lap and I lost eight spots on the restart, kind of got back to eighth.

But the 20 and the 54 were definitely better than me second half of the race. But Jonathan did a good job of putting two on it after the Stage 2 caution, kind of got some track position back and then kind of sat in third and kind of ran there.

Overall really good weekend, good practice and qualifying and strong showing in the race. Appreciate Menards and Ford for what they do, and it's nice to get a good finish here. Even though it's not a win, pretty decent day.

Q. Another short and shorter track coming up for you guys. Looks good for the 12 team do you think?

RYAN BLANEY: Hope so. That place has been good to us recently, so looking forward to seeing what we can do.