On the heels of a dominating performance that culminated in a convincing victory in last weekend’s NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas, Ryan Blaney has every reason to feel optimistic about his chances of a strong run on Sunday at Charlotte — a place where he’s never been to Victory Lane at the Cup Series level.
“It’s definitely great momentum,” said the Team Penske driver, who continues to search for his first points win of 2022. “We kind of came to Texas unloading with a little bit different approach to what we normally do week in and week out with car setup stuff, and I thought it was very positive. We were very fast all weekend. That gives you confidence that hey, your car was really fast. Obviously winning the race is great, but I take away that our car was really fast, we made big gains on the speed side of it to where I feel like we’ve lacked a little bit here the last month. I’m very proud of that.”
Texas and Charlotte — sister tracks owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc. — are virtually identical in size and configuration, as both are high-speed, 1.5-mile quad-ovals.
“Charlotte has its similarities to Texas a little bit, so there’s some things we can really carry over to there,” Blaney said. “I’m very proud of the effort and the gains that we made from a speed perspective at Texas, and it shows. Winning is just a bonus. Looking forward to Charlotte, and hopefully we keep building and keep finding speed in our cars.”