Monday, June 12, 2017

NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Winner Ryan Blaney – In Their Own Words

NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Winner Ryan Blaney – In His Own Words

Interview with Ryan Blaney, Eddie Wood, Len Wood And Jeremy Bullins


Ryan Blaney’s first Monster Energy Cup Series victory earned the great Wood Brothers team its 99th Cup trophy.

 

Ryan Blaney’s first Monster Energy Cup Series victory earned the great Wood Brothers team its 99th Cup trophy. This was the team’s first win since a then 20-year-old Trevor Bayne stunned the racing world by winning the 2011 Daytona 500 in his first try.

Below they express their elation in their own words.


Question: Please walk us through the pass of Kyle Busch and holding off Kevin Harvick for the win.

Ryan Blaney: Yeah, so we did a great job -- I say we. Jeremy Bullins (Crew Chief) and everybody did a great job of positioning ourselves to start towards the front on tires. When the 18 stayed out, he looked to be the best car all day, and it's almost a curse when you're that good. Everyone just kind of does the opposite of what you do in that situation. We've been on the bad side of that before.

Once we got to second, I knew he was going to fall off pretty hard, and it was just a matter of getting by him before everyone else. All the other really fast cars on our strategy got to second, as well, or got to us. And it was a pretty good race to get by Kyle there at the end of the race, and then having to hold Kevin off was really tough. He was fast all day, and you just got to not mess up and hit your marks and take airway and props to him, he drove me really clean, and I have the utmost respect for him doing that, and I've seen him win countless races passing cars within the last 10 laps, and he does a great job with that. But thank you to him again for racing me clean.

But it was exciting in the car for sure. Hopefully it's exciting for the fans, and like we said, we just put ourselves in a spot to capitalize on it like we did today.


But it was exciting in the car for sure. Hopefully it's exciting for the fans, and like we said, we just put ourselves in a spot to capitalize on it like we did today. Ryan Blaney


Question: What has been the key to really getting this 21 car up front and in position to win week in and week out?

Jeremy Bullins: Just experience. I mean, we started this thing part-time in 2015, built a team, put people together, made changes here and there throughout, and have a group of people now that I feel like can compete as a team with anybody. We've had good cars all year. We've had good speed all year.

The last few weeks we've been really fast and just had some unfortunate things happen but felt like we were in a position a couple times to take advantage of that, and today we put it all together and overcame some stuff, and it all worked out.


LEN WOOD: You know, I think when he pulled those rookie stripes off in Daytona, it made a difference in him

Question: What makes Ryan so special?

LEN WOOD: You know, I think when he pulled those rookie stripes off in Daytona, it made a difference in him. I won't call it more aggressive, but it's kind of, and it shows every week. We've been fast everywhere we've been. We've had issues. We were very close to a win at Texas, very close at Kansas, and it kind of dawned on me, I said, we're not going to win a race where it's expected that day. We'll win somewhere that we don't expect it, and it was here today.

Every win you get is very, very special, and especially when you get like Ryan's first win, and we've had a number of kids that come through our car that won their first race in our car. Eddie Wood


Question: Is this better than winning the lottery, having your protégé in Victory Lane?

EDDIE WOOD: Yeah, this is way better. This will last forever. Every win you get is very, very special, and especially when you get like Ryan's first win, and we've had a number of kids that come through our car that won their first race in our car. Dale Jarrett did, Kyle did, and to be part of that, that now he's -- we can always say he won his first race with us, and it'll always be that way. But it was a great day, and like the radio thing, and I mean, it was just like us going back to the old days with no radios. You asked about which it was; we used to have a piece of gray tape on the dash that would have roof loose, door push, and that's what you went by. It just kind of took me back, and then right there at the end, the way he was trying to get away from Harvick and dropping down to the inside like that, Neil Bonnett did that in 1980 here, and went on to win the race. I don't know, it was just like I had flashbacks. It was really cool.



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