Ryan Blaney hoping to repeat previous Kentucky success this weekend

After picking up his first career Nationwide Series victory last year at Kentucky Speedway, Ryan Blaney is back this weekend doing double duty as he’ll run both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event and Nationwide Series event.

The young star was one of the drivers who took to the track today for NNS testing as NASCAR allowed each team a pair of sessions to get to know the speedway better. Blaney was solid during the session, posting times that ranked in the top 10 both sessions.

“The corners and everything like that is about the same (as last year) but I don’t know what they did to start finish line whether they tried to reseal it or something like that as it’s really rough over there for some reason,” Blaney noted after the session. “It looks like they put new pavement there and it didn’t sit well. Other than that, the racing surface is really good and that’s what makes this race track so good is the character here. You have to make your car or truck handle well over the bumps and that’s something that we’ve been good at.

“Actually talking about the bumps, I got a nose bleed during practice – that’ll say how bumpy this race track is. It’s definitely one of the roughest places, but it is what makes it unique.”

Blaney went on to add that he believes Kentucky is the “roughest place” that they go to, reminding him of how Rockingham used to be back in the day. Trying to get used to the track configuration along the bumps is something that Blaney noted was tough during his first trip to Kentucky in 2012.

“You have to know where the bumps are and avoid them, or try and get your vehicle to run well over them,” Blaney commented. “That’s just what makes it a great race track and gives it great character with three lanes to run on.”

Now two years later with a Kentucky win under his belt, those tricky times are old memory as the second generation driver says he is confident for more success this weekend in both divisions. While he hasn’t won a truck race at Kentucky yet, he was in the thick of things last year.

“They’re coming back with the attitude that they’re going to win it this year,” Blaney commented of his truck team. “It’s just that mentality that really pushes you and the team over the top and gets you in the mindset that ‘you should’ve won here, you’ve won here’ so it’s a good boost for the whole team in general.”

Of course, perhaps the trickiest thing this weekend will be running both the truck and Nationwide car as Blaney continues to grow as a driver. Blaney welcomes the challenge, though, saying that drivers like Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski are so good because they run triple, double-headers weekly to get more laps under their belts.

“I love doing double headers as it’s fun racing with the Penske guys, and the BKR (Brad Keselowski Racing) guys,” Blaney commented. “I wish I could do more of it. I like doing them and it really prepares you for that second race. I’ll take a lot from the truck race that I can apply to the Nationwide Series race.”