April 2, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Ryan Blaney continues stellar qualifying effort with Richmond pole

The odds of a driver under 30 winning a race are in Ryan Blaney’s favor.

His record at Richmond Raceway, however, along with his inability to convert any of his eight Cup poles into a victory does not bode especially well for the driver.

Maybe the ninth time will be the charm for the 28-year-old Team Penske driver in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400.

 “I will say it’s definitely not been my best place at all,” Blaney said after topping the speed chart with a lap of 119.782-mph (22.541-seconds). “I struggled here really bad for years and I still don’t feel like I’m great here at all, or let alone very good. 

“Qualifying on the pole here is one thing. Racing here is a completely other thing. It’s great we got the pole, but now it’s time to switch to race mode and, ‘OK, what do we have to do to be able to hold on in the race?’” 

Richmond has been a challenge for Blaney during his Cup career. He scored his first top 10 at the .75-mile track in his 11th and most recent start last September.  Although his average start at the track is a solid 13.5, Richmond ranks as Blaney’s worst when it comes to his average finishes—22.2.

“We’ve worked really hard on figuring out what to do better here from myself to how we kind of unload with the car to be more competitive in the race. And that’s been a year in progress of me just trying to figure out what the heck I need to do,” Blaney said. "I feel like everyone has done a really good job to bring a fast car.”

Blaney has enjoyed fast cars all season. He won stages at both Phoenix and Atlanta and is currently second in the Cup standings. Blaney posted the third quickest lap in practice but when it came to average, he led the five, 10, 15, 20 and 25-lap average speed categories.

William Byron will start alongside Blaney on the front row on Sunday. Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe, Erik Jones, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell and Aric Almirola rounded out the top 10 in time trials. After finishing second at Circuit of the Americas, defending Richmond race winner Alex Bowman struggled in qualifying and rolls off 28th.

The new car could be a game-changer for Blaney. He’s led laps in each of the first six races and leads the tour with 206 laps led overall. On Sunday, Blaney will have started on the front row for four consecutive weeks. His average qualifying effort of 4.7 is the best in Cup. Perhaps the tide is turning for Blaney at Richmond as well.

“The new car is a little bit different here driving-wise,” Blaney said. “It’s kind of a fresh start for me having a new car here at this place and just working really hard with everybody at Penske on the 12 team to figure out, ‘OK, what do I need to do to just get more competitive here.’ Even though it’s not in the playoffs this year, you don’t want to run bad anywhere.  You need to be able to adapt to different racetracks, so just a fast car and a lot of hard work.

"I wish I could pull one of these things out. Obviously, really fast race cars. Jonathan Hassler has done a great job of unloading pretty quick this year, right away, and then backing it up with pretty fast race cars even though some of the finishes we’ve had hasn’t really reflected on how we’ve been running this year. I feel like we’ve had a really good year, it’s just trying to clean some stuff up and get some things better."