{"id":162418,"date":"2025-09-22T23:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T23:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/162418\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T23:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T23:00:09","slug":"ryan-blaney-verdict-on-new-hampshire-win-speaks-volumes-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/162418\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Blaney verdict on New Hampshire win speaks volumes – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Ryan Blaney<\/a> climbed out of his car Sunday and hoisted a lobster in victory lane, it was more than a novelty photo \u2014 it was confirmation of momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His triumph in the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire, where there were several biggest winners and losers<\/a>, crowned him the first driver to clinch a spot in the Round of Eight of the NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But despite the relief of automatic advancement, Blaney, who made his feelings clear on recent “nice guy” claims<\/a>, made clear that this win doesn\u2019t fundamentally alter his mindset: he remains steadfast in the belief that his team already has the tools to contend for a title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the win makes me feel any more that way,\u201d Blaney said when asked if it boosted his confidence in a title run. \u201cI think we can contend. This team has been really good all year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a championship-contending team. It\u2019s a championship-winning team a couple years ago. It\u2019s pretty much the same group of guys. My mindset really hasn\u2019t changed. I believed we can do it all season, and this win doesn\u2019t make me believe we can do it even more than what I felt like going through the whole year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blaney\u2019s season has not been without turbulence \u2014 seven DNFs to this point attest to that. But of late, he\u2019s found consistency. After leading laps in 10 of the first 21 races, he\u2019s now led in eight of the last nine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

He enters Loudon riding a wave: two wins in his last five starts, including the regular-season finale at Daytona.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Victory at New Hampshire gives Blaney breathing room heading into the next two races \u2014 Kansas and the Charlotte road course \u2014 since his advancement is secure regardless of how those run. But he\u2019s far from relaxing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt opens up your box a little bit, and it makes you feel a little bit better if it doesn\u2019t work out,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it backfires on you, it\u2019s not as big of a deal if you\u2019re fighting for your life for points, every point you can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS<\/p>\n

The win was as much about execution as speed. Blaney pitted under green with 69 laps to go \u2014 a bit earlier than the pack might have expected \u2014 then on his final stop (with 46 laps remaining) opted for two tires. He emerged in third behind Josh Berry and Chase Elliott but wrestled the lead away with 39 laps to go and never gave it back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blaney knows momentum is fragile, especially deep in the playoffs. Far from dialing it back, he plans to stay aggressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you can win in the playoffs, it\u2019s just momentum,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cI\u2019m a big believer in momentum and confidence. \u2026 We\u2019re not going to go relax for two weeks. We\u2019re not going to go kick our feet up and just ride around. Like, we\u2019ll go try to win two more races. Got to stay in that mode. Got to stay in that on-kill mode. That\u2019s super important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Ryan Blaney climbed out of his car Sunday and hoisted a lobster in victory lane, it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,83256,2332,634,8354,84279,15224,82],"class_list":["post-162418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mobil-1-301","tag-motorsport-section","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-new-hampshire-race","tag-ryan-blaney","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}