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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: 1000BULBS.COM 500October 14, 2019Ryan BlaneyJeremy BullinsLincoln, Alabama THE MODERATOR: We have our race winning crew chief, Jeremy Bullins from the No.12 Dent Wizard Ford for Team Penske. We'll open it up to questions. Q. When Ryan spun yesterday, were you thinking you were out of it? JEREMY BULLINS: We knew we had a fast car. Worked our way to the lead. Unfortunate what happened, spinning to pit road. Like I told him last night, glad we got that out of the way early, didn't damage the car in any way. We know what the limits are at that point. Pretty much recovered from it, got back to 10th by the end of the stage. We knew we had a good car. Just put it behind us and moved on. Q. Take me through the last lap. JEREMY BULLINS: We knew once you get to the bottom, you know a run is coming from somewhere. The 11 had a great recovery day and was pushing the 6 pretty hard. We saw them coming. Just hoping that we could play enough defense, get those guys separated. Ryan did a great job of getting those guys separated, getting the run back to get by the 6 to the line. That was the difference, the moves he made with the guys coming on the outside. Q. With your win you put some other people in a tough spot. Basically an 18‑point gap. That can be made up easier here than Kansas. What is the challenge if you were trying to make up 18 points? JEREMY BULLINS: I feel like going into Kansas, you would have needed to probably win both stages. You have to have a pretty good stage point advantage over the guys that you're trying to race to make up that kind of points. I told the team after the first round that we needed to win a race in this stage. The way the Playoff points thing carries over, when you get to the Round of 12, there's a pretty big gap from 12th to 10th to the lead. I felt like we needed to win a race. That was our goal. Obviously this week and next week have been good tracks for us. We haven't won at either one of them, but ran well at both of them. We felt like going into it, we had a shot of at winning one of these. That was our goal. I'm really excited about the Round of 8. Some great racetracks for us. For us, we're a little bit playing on house money. We'll go try to win a championship. Q. Six stage points today. The win makes that irrelevant. How much did you feel was left on the table? JEREMY BULLINS: I felt like we left nine stage points on the table yesterday with spinning in the first stage, getting back to 10th. We had control of the race at that point when we spun. You feel like you left some points on the table at that point. If we could have managed and controlled the second stage and won that stage, I think we would have been second or third on stage points for the race. That would have been good. Like I said, at the end of the day you're trying to win. You know this format requires wins. We get tired of hearing that the 12 car led the most laps without winning, all that kind of stuff. We're trying to win races as hard as anybody. The effort is there. Sometimes you just need things to play out for you and today it did. Q. Looking at the score sheet, four Fords in the top five. There was a lot made about manufacturers working together. Nice to say that was by design, but at the end of this thing, how much was every driver for himself? JEREMY BULLINS: I think the cool thing about the last lap is a Ford was going to win, right? We were racing the 6. Obviously we needed the win from a Playoff standpoint. But I don't take anything away from those guys wanting to win a race. They need to win a race as much as anybody does. It appreciate the fact everybody raced hard, did what they had to do. We had a bunch of Fords up there, one was going to win the race. The manufacture thing is important. Those guys probably don't get enough credit for the support they give to the race teams across the board, whether it be Ford or any of the others. Appreciate everything they do. It's our job to try to do the best we can for them, to get a Ford in Victory Lane. Just really happy it was the 12 car. THE MODERATOR: Jeremy, thank you. JEREMY BULLINS: Thank you, guys. THE MODERATOR: We now have the race winning driver Ryan Blaney, driver of the No.12 Dent Wizard Ford for Team Penske. We'll open it up for questions. Q. When Newman passed you, built up a little bit of an advantage. Did you think you were going to be able to back to him? RYAN BLANEY: Really the last lap I saw the 11 and 6 coming on the top, down the back, they were tandem together. I saw them coming. I wanted to pull up, but they were coming so much faster than us. If I would have pulled up, tried to block them, they just would have split me. You can't block runs like you used to with this package. There's none of that. Really not that air bubble any more that you talk about. You run through the guy's bumper. The runs are a lot longer, especially when you tandem like they did. I figured my best bet was to pull the 11 off of them. That's kind of what I did. Luckily I was able to get to the 11's quarter panel in three. Pulled them off the 6. I knew Aric was going to come push me through to the bottom, we both would be clear. Then it's all about making a move. Hopefully you make the right move at the right time on the frontstretch. That just happened to work out. I knew if I could separate them, stay on the bottom, come out second, we had a shot at Newman. Q. After last week having the suspension issue and being pretty buried coming in here, how much of a relief is it, no stress at Kansas? RYAN BLANEY: It's huge. I mean, after last week, having that trouble with some parts breaking, our mindset was really we had to win one of these two races. We were so far back in points. I know Talladega is a wild card. There's a lot of wrecks today. A lot of guys got tore up. We didn't get stage points, far behind the eight ball. We knew we had to probably win one of these two weeks. Just a huge relief. After having such a bad weekend last week, it's nice to get a win and lock you into the next round for sure. You still go out and try to win Kansas. You're not relaxing in Kansas. Still try to go out and win that race. Really a big weekend for our team after the troubles we had last week. Q. The outlook for the Round of 8, tracks you've been decent at. Knowing there's three guys with a points buffer, do you feel you're going to have to win one of those races to make sure you're at Homestead? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I definitely think so. You kind of see the last couple years, there's a few guys that have a pretty big points lead from having phenomenal regular seasons, with bonus points and things like that. You got to win the race to win the championship at Homestead. You better get used to trying to win big races. Wins have kind of alluded us this year after I felt like we should have had two or three already. It was nice to put one together. Yeah, I definitely think it will take a win in the Round of 8 to get you to the Championship 4 if you are not one of those top guys that have had tons of wins throughout the regular season and a lot of bonus points. Q. The next round you have three good tracks you've been pretty good at. Which of the three do you feel like you could go out and win? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I mean, honestly all three have been really good to us the last couple years. We ran great at Martinsville. We've run great at Martinsville the last couple years. Had a great run in the spring running fourth in Texas. We were leading when we blew up about halfway through that race. Phoenix we led a lot, ended up third. I feel like they're all really strong for us, it's just a matter of executing. I feel like either one of those three races earlier this year we could have won. Just had a problem at Texas, just weren't quite fast enough there at the end of those races. I think those are three really good tracks for us. It's just a matter of executing and doing all we can in our power to run the race the best that we can and adapt throughout the race. Yeah, the this next round, pretty good tracks for us. Hopefully we can rise to the occasion. Q. You led the most laps today with 35. What do you feel you did better than everybody else that kept you out front so much? RYAN BLANEY: Nothing. I mean, this race now, last year and a couple years prior to that, it was a lot easier for the leader to block lanes and control the race. I thought Brad and Joey were great examples of being able to control the whole race, being able to air block and things like that. Nowadays, you just can't do that. There's no air bubble to kind of push the leader up front. You can't play different lanes. You're trying to push as hard as you can. There's a couple instances we came off pit road first, were able to run the bottom pretty decent. We led a little bit. I didn't really think about that. No one dominated this race. I think you can look back at this whole race, there wasn't anyone with a dominantly fast car. It kind of was all about the help behind you, the runs you could get, where you took your runs. Speedway racing is tough nowadays with the way the cars are now, you don't see domination any more. Probably good for the fans, right? You don't have anybody leading a hundred laps of the race. I don't know how many green flag passes there were, probably a lot. A little bit more wrecks than I'd like to see, but you have that when people are pushing hard like today. Yeah, just circumstantial. We found ourselves in the lead a little bit throughout the race. We were shuffled back to the front. Kind of the way things are now. Q. Talk about your range of emotions from Dover, the cellar of the points, then coming in here knowing you have to run well, spin going onto pit road, coming back tonight one crash after another to win this thing. RYAN BLANEY: Definitely a big range of emotions, right? This is what sports are about. From our trouble yesterday spinning coming out of pit road leading the race, that's something you want to forget, right? You learn what to do better next time, but you want to forget about that. Then having a night in between is honestly worse. You're kind of dwelling on it, Why the heck did I do that? That was dumb. Missing a bunch of wrecks today. I feel like all the other speedway races this year we've gotten collected in someone else's mess, none of our doing. A lot of guys had that happen today. Just the way speedway racing goes. We were able to be in our spot to see the wreck happen and miss it, which has not been the case this year for us. We've always been wadded up in it and know where to go. Just a wild race. That comes from people pushing really hard. Literally that's what people got turned from, people pushing extremely hard. These cars, the bumpers don't connect well. The rear springs are so stiff, it's easy to turn cars to the right. You saw a lot of that happen today. Pretty much every wreck, cars getting sideswiped on the rear bumpers. We were able to make it through those, capitalize on the opportunities we were given be at the end of the race. Q. You said you felt like you had to win one of these next two races. When you get to this point, is it any different or how do you try to keep it the same from week‑to‑week because it's the Playoffs, it's not the same? RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I mean, same but it's different. I mean, I always say our mindset every week, any team's mindset, is to win the race every week, right? When you realize what's on the line, I wouldn't call our situation this weekend a must‑win situation. It was most likely we had to win the race here or Kansas to advance with how good guys were on points. Yeah, it's definitely a tough thing. We like to say there's no pressure on it, but there's a lot. There's a lot of pressure internally that can sometimes come out. Maybe you don't show it very often. I don't show it very often, but it does come out every now and then because this is what you love to do. There's a lot of things on the line. But, yeah, definitely a really important day for us to do well. We didn't get a lot of stage points, so I was kind of worried about that throughout the day. The 24, the 88 did. Then they had their problems. Yeah, you go into these weekends kind of focused on there's good and bad to having to win, you got nothing really to lose, right, you're pretty far back, you're going to be really aggressive on things. Then you know you have nothing to lose and you're going to maybe put yourself in some sketchy situations. There's kind of good and bad to that. I've always kind of been a taking chances kind of person. Even though I don't want to see us in this situation, it kind of almost brings an extra fire to people. Q. You've advanced this far a couple years ago. Kind of in a must‑win situation at Phoenix. Other than being two years later, what can that experience help you for the Round of 8? RYAN BLANEY: I mean, like I said earlier on, there's a few guys really good on points right now. You're probably going to have to win in the Round of 8 to advance if you're not one of those guys. You got to win Miami. Most likely you got to win the race. Better get used to that. Better get used to that mindset. Yeah, we had the shot a couple years ago with the Wood Brothers in '17, got to Phoenix, won the pole, then didn't run well enough. We were kind of too far out. You just want to put yourself in a spot to have a chance. That's really all you can ask for. Now our chance is here. It's in the Round of 8. We have our chance to go to Miami. Get knocked out now, have you no chance. All you're looking for is an opportunity to capitalize on a situation, on a race like we did today. I feel really confident we can go out and win any of those three races in the Round of 8, really good tracks for us. That's kind of what our focus is. Q. Last week Harvick talked about safety is the biggest change he's seen in 20 years. Some crazy wrecks today, airborne. When you're driving through that, what is going through your mind? Over 200 miles an hour today. RYAN BLANEY: I mean, when you're racing and you're green flag, you're not thinking of that. Honestly, I don't think about it at all, the safety side of it at all. Granted, I haven't been around that long. It's easy for someone like Kevin to relate, right? Watching my dad, amazing what it's done since the early 2000s. I don't think about that when we're racing. I don't think anyone does. Brendan Gaughan flipped right in front of me. I was kind of surprised. I don't know how he got clipped. These cars can get clipped in certain ways that catch air underneath them. Larson had it done to him in the spring race. You hope they're okay. I mean, I asked right away is Brendan all right? I know he landed on all four, which is good. You worry about the frame rails, him hurting his back. I think he was okay from what I was told. Nothing I really think about. I'm not running 200 miles an hour thinking, Am I going to get hurt? I just never thought about that. Maybe some guys do. Granted, some of them have more family than I got. I don't have children or a wife or anything like that. Maybe it changes your mind a little bit. I know the safety side is amazing now. Even since I started, even late models, just amazing the safety stuff, improvements they've made. Just nothing that really crosses my mind. I'm confident in all of it. THE MODERATOR: Ryan, thank you. RYAN BLANEY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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