NASCAR CUP SERIES: DOLLAR TREE 301

August 23, 2026

Ryan Blaney

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our race winner, Ryan Blaney.

We'll open it up for questions.

Q. What are you going to do with that second lobster?

RYAN BLANEY: Hang it up next to the first one (smiling).

Yeah, I got my first one this morning on the plaque after they did their deal to it. A bar in my house, I have a turkey I got three or four years ago hanging in there. I was planning on putting my first one next to him, surf and turf action. Next year when I get the second lobster, I'm going to hang it next to him. Have a buddy. My wife may not like it, but it's happening.

Q. Interesting conversation piece.

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, usually I can get away with that if it's trophies, win trophies. Maybe in my son's room, but it might scare him. I don't know (smiling).

Q. You mentioned yesterday that you wanted it to rain. You were able to run 40 laps with the wet-weather tires. When you went to the slicks, when did you know you had a race-winning car?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I figured it was going to rain at some point in the race just looking at the weather. The first 40, 50 laps, whatever it was, just tried to survive 'em. Tried not to be a hero, do anything special, just tried to get there thinking the weather was going to clear up.

I think really the first time we were on slicks I felt like my car was decent, but the track was still drying. Starting stage two, when I got to second there with Josh, my car is pretty good. I think I can contend for the win. Just keep tweaking on it all day.

Once the track went full dry, I knew we were in the ballgame. Hoping it didn't rain from there. I thought we were really good in the dry. Didn't want to have to deal with trying not to crash in the wet.

Q. Those closing couple laps, Bubba was able to get closer and closer. Did you notice that? Did it impact anything you were doing?

RYAN BLANEY: I was aware of it, for sure. Timmy was giving me gaps. I tried to build the gap early in the run, knowing we were going to go a long way on tires. I had two. Just trying to manage them after I got out to a second or two lead. When I saw Bubba got to a second, I knew he was quick. I just tried to manage that for a little bit. He started creeping in like a 10th here. I tried to pick it up a little bit. That's eating a little bit more tire away, trying to maintain that second and a half gap.

Getting to traffic, it's trying to pick through traffic. It was tough. It was in groups. Wasn't like one, 10 car lengths, then one. It was like two to four cars in a pod, in a pack. Man, I'm trying to work through them. Trying not to mess up, trying to find the cleanest air possible.

He was able to close in a little bit. Was able to get through that fairly decent. But, I mean, gosh, with 20 to go, kind of as I was working through traffic, I was starting to struggle. Two, kind of fading. Couldn't get off the corners as good as I wanted to. My entry started to go away.

If Bubba got there, he got there. We'll race it out. I just didn't want to make a mistake slipping into the corner or something, overdriving it.

It was a heck of a battle. I look forward to rewatch it, seeing him creep in. Hopefully the fans enjoyed the racing today. I thought it was pretty good. Fortunate for us we were able to pick through lapped cars and hang on.

Q. Does it matter out there, when you're racing someone that you have that kind of relationship with? What is that like?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I mean, Bubba and I have been racing with each other since we were like 10 years old. We've been racing together forever. Been fortunate to grow up together, remain really good friends over the years. Have families together, things like that.

There's only a handful of guys that are at that respect level for me out on the racetrack, whether I grew up with them or just have that. Bubba is one of those guys I have a ton of respect for. What he can do behind the wheel, the person he is, the friend that he is.

It's fun racing with your buddies. But at the end of the day, we were incredibly fierce competitors. We're going to race the hell out of each other. You know you can trust that person. We're going to race really hard, but we're going to race clean. It's always fun to race with your friends, especially for the lead and things like that.

That's pretty fortunate, yeah.

Q. Another battle that you had today was with Josh around the lap 100 mark. Take us through the mindset of that battle, especially with a pit stop that interrupted it.

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, it was a fun battle. End of the race last year he and I were battling, kind of positions swapped. I had have a ton of respect for Josh. He's been a great teammate for the last couple years. He's really talented at what he does. Really been showing his talents last couple years.

It's been fun to work with him for sure.

Yeah, he gave me a ton of respect last year at the end of that race. I was going to repay it back. I have a lot of respect for Josh as a racer. So I was never going to run him over just because I don't want to do that to that guy. He showed the same to me. That was fun kind of trying lanes, battling, slip a little bit, lose some ground, kind of make it back up. That's what good racing's all about, when tires are old, guys are slipping around, trying just not to make a mistake.

That was an entertaining one, for sure.

Q. The order of the night?

RYAN BLANEY: I ate at Makris Friday night when I got here. I can't remember what it was called. Like the fisherman's platter, had shrimp, fish, onion rings. I had some clam chowder as well. I can never not get clam chowder when I'm up here.

Makris is a solid spot. I didn't get any lobster because they wanted a hundred bucks for six ounces, which is ridiculous (smiling). Yeah, it's a solid place.

Q. It's no secret that you're a bit of a radio sweetheart when something bad happens. How long does it take you from the moment where you hear we're just going to do it the hard way for you to lock back in?

RYAN BLANEY: I've said this for years. Whenever I say those things on the radio after something bad happens, it's my, like, relief valve. I just have to get it out in the open; then I get over it as soon as I say it. I have to say it or I'll be stewing over it for a while. That's how I have figured out just to get over things.

I wish I wasn't that way, but I'd rather be that way than to have it in the back of my mind for the rest of the race, not be fully thinking on what the main goal is.

Timmy does a good job of having great reassurance when things happen, just being like, Well, we're going to do this the hard way.

It's like, Okay, that's fine with me.

Yeah, I just have to get things out there, off my chest. It takes me five, ten seconds, whatever it is, to move on.

Q. With the horsepower increase, the tire, aero stuff, it seemed like a slightly different, competitive New Hampshire race.

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I think the horsepower, the tire combo was good. I thought the racetrack raced really well. You could really pay the penalty if you slipped 'em for multiple laps. You had to be super mindful of that.

Yeah, that's the right direction, right? That's how you get comers and goers, people who pass, who can haul on starts, have that pace. I thought it was good. Hopefully they keep working in the right direction. Maybe they'll add 75 more next year and it will be even better.

Q. You said after winning last year that you wanted to hold that lobster for like 30 years, I'm paraphrasing. In that context, getting another one, how cool is that to win here twice now?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I love this place. I've always enjoyed watching races here. I've always enjoyed when I would come up here, before I was racing here, and watching on TV, seeing those guys hold the lobster up. Like I said last year, I always wanted to do that.

There's certain traditions at tracks around the country, they have their own little thing. Those things are really cool. You always want to kind of -- there's things that catch your eye as a kid that you want to be a part of.

It's nice to have another one. It's extra special when you can come back to a place where you were really competitive last year, still try to improve. How do you get better and better? You can't do the same thing two years in a row. You have to always improve because your competition is evolving and improving.

Our group did a great job of molding themselves into what we think is a better direction for our team, then applying it.

Yeah, it's special to win a couple of them here because I love racing around this place. The people here are fantastic. We always get great crowds at this race. For them to stick around in the rain. It's a bummer on Sunday morning when it's raining. They toughed it out. Ended up being a beautiful day. They got to see a great race. Appreciate their support up here.

Q. Felt like there was a tangible sense of urgency throughout the field today. It felt like a Chase race. Is that foreshadowing for next year?

RYAN BLANEY: It was definitely aggressive, for sure, through the field. Trying to get a lot on restarts and things like that. That's kind of the way this place is.

The neat part about this place is there's pretty much four lanes to choose from. You have the bottom, all the way up to the fourth lane out of the groove that you can go to on restarts.

You see a huge fan, people kind of shoving it in the middle of three-wide, stuff like that, trying to plug the top. It's just kind of the easiest place to make spots.

I always think races here are aggressive. When you have a softer tire to start the runs, guys have more grip to make those bolder moves. When you have a super hard tire, no one can really make bold moves. When it's softer like that, I think it always makes more exciting restarts, and then it makes it more interesting to watch as the run progresses to see who got too much early. It was definitely aggressive, but I think that's a normal New Hampshire race, especially on restarts.

Q. You mentioned getting to vent a little bit. Did you almost feel like it was déjà vu all over again from last week?

RYAN BLANEY: Honestly, it didn't really cross my mind in the moment. Yeah, I mean, last week was unfortunate of just kind of how things played out, just didn't really work for us with the strategy we had. That was just a strategy that didn't play out.

We planned on something happening, and it didn't at Richmond. A little bit different than today when you make a mistake and your car is a race-winning car. I think it's two different mindset.

Yeah, I definitely felt like, Man, we got the best car here, this is going to be extra hard getting back in the lead in the last hundred laps coming from 15th.

We had a great car. Jonathan made a great call again to throw two on it to get us the lead and maintain. I think this group does that really well. When things happen, they move on and forget bit, try to just focus on the overall task. They don't really let it weigh them down. Those are people that are fun to work for.

It's nice to have a good week after last week. I don't think we had a car to win last week. I think we could have run third or fourth if it played our way. It is nice to kind of rebound, I guess.

Q. You mentioned racing with Bubba. Have you heard the nickname he has for you?

RYAN BLANEY: No.

Q. Calls you the golden child.

RYAN BLANEY: Golden child? I appreciate that. Thank you, Bubba (smiling). That's special.

Q. You said you love coming up here. Talk about the fan base and how this race is going to be in the Chase next?

RYAN BLANEY: This place has been in the Chase, out of the Chase. It's jumped in and out. I've always thought this place is incredibly deserving of a Chase race just because it puts on a really good show.

The fans up here are incredibly passionate about racing. I did an event last night at the little fan tent behind the backstretch, me, Joey and Austin. It was packed in there, people camping out. It's just a good atmosphere here.

It's more I think to have a Playoff race here in the Northeast, for sure. I was sad that it was out of the Chase this year. I'm excited it's back in. Whether we run really good or bad here, I think this place really deserves a Chase race because the fans are incredibly passionate and they love motorsports.

Q. You talked about how aggressive you had to be on restarts. When the track is emerging from wet to dry, you're switching from wet tires to slicks, how do you temper the aggression?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I mean, obviously we have more reps in the dry. It was interesting today when we went from wets to slicks because the bottom two lanes were wet. Even half of the third lane was wet. They said we were going to put on slicks. I don't know about that, it's pretty wet down there. But it was kind of drying rapidly. Kept getting little spots and sections, getting better as we were running caution laps.

Yeah, it was kind of a three-mindset race of full wet, just trying to survive it, putting the slicks on of how do I tiptoe around here, I don't want to give up too much, and then the full dry, where we practiced and things like that.

Yeah, it's one of the beauties of motorsports that you have to adjust to the conditions and what is asked of you and your car at the time. How do you change your car from what conditions out there. That's always the fun part of motorsports, working through it with your team.

As a driver, changing techniques every single lap, which drivers are changing every single lap because the cars change every lap. When it's extreme like that, you have to reset your brain.

It was fun to work through that stuff today. I really enjoyed it. We probably have, but I don't know if we started a race wet, then went to the dry. I feel like we've always went dry to wet to whatever. A little bit different today.

I am happy that we have at these tracks rain tires that we can run in damp conditions or wet conditions because it just gets the show going, keeps the fans interested, keeps TV interested, then you see a lot of crazy things happen through the race, which I thought everyone was well-behaved in the wet really. I think we had a couple little things. Once we got rolling, we ran a bunch of laps under green. Everyone was really good, yeah.

Q. Today you led the most laps, and you won. We go to Daytona next week. You had that dramatic finish at the flag to win. Do you even allow yourself to feel confidence and good heading into the Playoffs, or do you have to consciously tell yourself don't get overly...

RYAN BLANEY: I just try to take it week by week. We did a great job this week of preparing for this race and accepting the challenges that were thrown at us today, from the start of the race to the middle to the end of it. Then Monday we will close the book on New Hampshire; then we will focus on Daytona.

We've always, myself and Jonathan, we look ahead, but we have to put - at least me - I have to put 100% of my brainpower into the next race. I can't have half my brain thinking about Darlington or things like that. I have to give all my effort into one race.

I do really like where Team Penske is at right now. They've been doing a great job the last two and a half months racking up wins, just working really hard. Everybody in our race shop is really dedicated to getting better if we need to get better places. Really executing at the places where we've been really good in the past. Props to them. They've been fantastic on figuring out where we need to go.

I think I speak for my whole group, we go week to week. If there's confidence there in our group, we believe that we can contend for a championship because my guys are incredibly great to work with, they're great guys, they're champions.

We don't look at the future too much. One week at a time.

Q. There's been some discussions and stories over the weekend about the condition of the track, some cracking. Do you want weigh in on whether we should be repaving?

RYAN BLANEY: Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Don't touch it.

I don't care if I ran 30th today, don't touch it (smiling).

Q. What were you managing when Bubba cut the gap late? What changed inside the car for you?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, my main concern was trying to manage my rear tires. Especially on two, I think we had 10 or 12 laps on our lefts when we did two, and rear drive was kind of the main thing today. If you lost rear drive, you were really in trouble and you could bleed lap time really quick. Trying to maintain that when I had clean air was a big thing. Trying to make my gap and keep it.

It all changes when you get to traffic. Really when I got to traffic, I wasn't saving anything. You have to get through there quick. But you know you're going to lose a little bit of time. It just kind of slinkys a little bit when the leader gets to traffic, second closes in. If you get a couple cars in between you, he can pull away again.

My main thing was rear drive. I was plowing front brake to it to save the rear tires and help the entry.

But yeah, I didn't have much left at the end of that race. The rears were pretty beat up. Fortunately it was only 300 laps, not 310.

Q. Obviously we had the weather stoppage. What was going through your head during that brief time?

RYAN BLANEY: Yeah, I was just looking out my window seeing if the rain was going to let up or not. Kept updating me. It's about to pass. It's about to pass. They were making passes with the jets just to try to get some of the sitting water off.

They did a good job of not starting the race when they initially wanted to. It was a little too wet. It was raining a little bit too hard. There was a lot of spray, puddles out there. When it stopped raining, they did a once-over on the track, it was fine.

In my mind I was just thinking just get through the first 50 laps or so of this race. Don't mess it up. Don't go bombing in there and spin out or take anybody out and kind of ruin your race before it gets going.

A lot of time to ponder, but I try to keep my thoughts as simple as possible.

THE MODERATOR: Ryan, thanks for your time.

RYAN BLANEY: Thanks, everybody.