Ford Drivers: Ryan Blaney Discusses Parity And Chase Briscoe On Being The Guy For Answers At SHR

hopefully this weekend um I mean yeah it's uh it's definitely not from a lack of effort you know I mean we're we're working hard every single day to to try to figure out where we need to be at and um I think we're inching in on it um I feel like we're getting closer to where we were at the start of the year so that's positive it's just a matter of of getting there so uh I like to say this weekend but um we'll find out we get a good idea today of kind of where we stack up but uh definitely like I said not from lack of effort winning the championship what's that due your confidence now that you're into your first season as Champion uh yeah I mean I think it's a confidence boost for everybody you know on our group when you when you do something like that you know everybody uh on our team knows you can do it and they they know what we achieved last year and now it's okay we kind of know how to put the parts and pieces together to to try to get there and and win it now how do we do it again you know and how do we continue to become better as a group and a team to to do it again so um yeah confidence is definitely nice in this sport I believe in it I'm I'm a huge believer in confidence it affects your performance on things and just have a better outlook on everything so um try to use that to our advantage Kansas Speedway pretty RAC SE mile and a half track just what are your thoughts going in about what you got to do to win here yeah I mean I think um I mean the the last you know I can't even count how ever many races been W on the fence you know I mean so you got to have your car running good against the fence and uh but also kind of be able to run that lane off of it I feel like if you're married to the wall right up against it you're not going to pass anybody if he's running in the wall in front of you so it's how to make your car work you know at the wall a lane Off the Wall uh things like that but um just big commitment level a lot of throttle time here and with the weather being kind of chilly it's going to be even faster so um you better hope you you got some raw speed and you better hope that you uh are fully committed going into today and tomorrow pit stops seem to be becoming more important all the time just how critical is that right now uh I mean they're easiest places to get spots you know on Pit Road easiest place to lose them easiest places to gain them so we put a huge emphasis on it our group has done a great job and and everybody's still getting faster I forget we I think it was this past week we looked at an average of everyone's you know average stops for the year after nine races uh at this point last year and we're like 8/10 faster everyone's like 810 faster than what they were last year so that's a big bar to keep raising you know and and for those guys to keep getting better and better and improving and you know we're trying to shave tents off the racetrack and and they're doing the same thing on Pit Road they're trying to shave tents off their pit stops so um it's a challenge those guys are great athletes and working hard every day just like we are you don't get a lot of practice time out there before you qualify what do you have to do during the week in order to prepare for these races um I mean I think it it makes you be you know kind of ready to go as you get to the track sooner I'm and we've had you know we've had a few years of kind of practice with that you know since the pandemic and this kind of just the way it's it's been so uh you get pretty good but yeah the Prep Prep work at the race shop has to be even better than what it used to be you know a handful of years ago just because you can't throw the kitchen sink at it anymore you know you're kind of limited to to what you can change at the track and on pit roads so that part puts a huge emphasis on the teams to be ready and the drivers I mean you better be up to speed right away I mean you can't be taking three four laps to get up to speed just because you you don't have those to spare so uh just a lot of prep work a lot of you know data watching I don't do a ton of sim but um those are kind of the big thing I do to prepare as just ask you what the prep work as a driver you have to do during the week is it on the Sim is a just watching races what do you got to do everyone's a little different some guys do Sim other guys watch races and and look at data from last year I'm more kind of a data guy than a Sim guy but uh everyone's a little different do you think the next gen car has limited these star making moments maybe bigger picture star making Seasons that we saw like you know the last 10 one season was lar that's is that a star making season to you is like eight winner 10 winner that's good I mean that you winning title last year and the start making season way you finish it too I guess is a good way I mean I just I just don't you're just not going to have 10 wins anymore I mean Byron had six last year I mean it was an amazing year um I just don't you're just not going to see those like eight nine race win Seasons anymore and no one like being a favorite I think you can maybe have a handful of like favorites through the year but I think now it fluctuates so much like who can get good at what time and and cuz all these little tiny things they can make a huge difference on the track because everyone's so close together speed wise little tiny things can get you above the competition so it's so hard to set yourself apart and I think that's what's hard like in 21 when Larson won 10 races in the championship I mean you knew from the third race of the year it's like those guys are probably going to win the championship I mean they were just super good and the cars were the way they were with the old car um and it was easier to kind of pick out favorites or who you knew was dominant um this year I mean you have like 24 11 obviously you're kind of I would say the best right now consistency wise but like so hard to dominate through the year nowadays because the parody is just uh it's pretty vast it's a better way to phrase it maybe you won't see a historically dominant season in terms of a clearcut like one guy's the favorite each week I just don't know if you're going to see that anymore you know I just with this car it's just so hard to do and um it's just the tools that you're given from the teams it's like hard to set yourself apart I mean you can you can set yourself apart but it's not by like miles um like when uh like when Larson was kicking all our butts in 21 like it was Miles different it was even close how much better that group when he was uh there and you're like yeah we ever going to catch that no one did um but now I just don't know if you're going to get that just that separation isn't as big and um I think teams can catch up a little quicker whether that's better worse I don't know what you want to call it uh just the way it is now you never know over the next month what's what's race track you're looking to for two months um the cook 600 is one I I am looking forward to um I would say St Louis is one that we've ran good at in the past I don't know when Iowa is I think it's sometime in June but that's by far my favorite racetrack so I'm pretty fired up to go there um sounds like they repaved some of it so I'm not as excited but um definitely Iowa is one where I can't wait to get to you think that you having that AR experience at Iowa will be a benefit over the rest of the competitor I don't know I think a lot of the field truth Lees probably ran at Iowa at some point of their career whether it was trucks or Xfinity um you know I definitely statistically that place has been my best Racetrack and I love going there so yeah I'm excited it is going to be different I think in this car I don't know if we'll run the wall like we do in other series but just that racetrack and the character that it has it's really rough and there's certain holes that you have to hit a certain way and things and um yeah I'm just excited to go there so I think it'll put on a really good race I talked to us earlier this week at the Productions facility it was um a complimentary of you and B well and Drew the same on Wednesday um and just how much more you guys have been working together to kind of work on finding the right field for you guys how has that benefited you and how have you seen it benefit Noah and the 10 group as well yeah it's been huge um you know I feel like me and Noah are just really similar in a lot of different ways and and even how we prepared you know some guys can sit there and watch film for 6 hours and dissect it and take you know countless notes and like I don't want work like that and uh Noah um so we've kind of came up with just a way that we can me and him and Boswell and Drew sit down and we sit down for like an hour and a half um and we just go through all kinds of different stuff and me and Noah just talk bounce ideas off each other and that's something we've been doing for about five or six weeks now and I feel like you definitely seen an improvement in the tins performance and even you know I feel way more prepared every week at the racetrack and I think the company is kind of seeing a little bit more too like this this week Riley set in in Josh Barry S in as well so you know the more I think we can keep just getting guys involved in that and expanding it and making it better you know we're still pretty rough around the edges as far as how we do it but as we continue to kind of find what works and what doesn't work I think it's only going to get better and I I know for sure it's helped me and I think Noah has felt like it's helped him a lot too yeah you noticed that like are the young guys or I say young but the in inexperienced guys at the team like looking up to you for the answers no I don't feel like they're looking at me at all I think honestly we all kind of help each other like we all compliment each other in different ways um you know we all kind of just bring a different perspective and background like all of us grew up racing totally different stuff growing up all of our driving styles are totally separate and you know none of us have the one answer right but all of us collectively I feel like can kind of help each other in certain areas in certain ways um and I feel like we do a really good job of trying to to know what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are amongst each other and we we really try to use that to our advance Vantage and I feel like we've done a good job with that so yeah I don't feel like I am the guy that has all the answers or even those guys come to me looking for the answers we all kind of have our own way of doing things right so how Ryan does it how I do it it's different how Josh does and I do it's different even how Noah and I do it is is different in ways we're probably more similar than the other two guys but we still definitely have our differences in how we go about things and do things so we just have all tried to figure out what we can do to take from each other and I feel like we've done a really good job with that how did you feel get top what up it's Brad Perez uh click subscribe and watch one of the two videos right beside me visit frontstretch dcom for more racing content

Channel: Frontstretch

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Id: zhxQZeP656c

Length: 9min 39sec (579 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2024