Ryan Blaney: Brickyard’s history makes it special

I recently did my first racing at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Lilly Diabetes 250 and the Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard.

Suffice to say I was really looking forward to it. The history of the Speedway by itself makes it one of the most special places to race if you’re a driver. Add to that the history of the teams I was there with — Penske Racing and Wood Brothers Racing — and it’s a great weekend before you even get to the track.

On Saturday during the XFINITY Series race, driving the Penske Racing No. 22 Ford Mustang, I had a chance to give Roger Penske his first NASCAR win at the Brickyard after so much success there in Indy Cars.

Unfortunately after leading 24 of the last 25 laps of the race, I made a mistake in turn two of the last lap and Kyle Busch took advantage, passing me for the win.

I got tight and too deep and didn’t get off the long corner. The team worked hard to get us that lead late in the race and I dropped the ball. They didn’t deserve that for sure. It was a pretty bad feeling to throw one away at the Brickyard.

The great thing about racing is there’s always another day. In this case, the next day was the Crown Royal 400 in the Wood Brothers’ Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion.

I didn’t really sleep much the night after the XFINITY race. I was thinking about turn two over and over. I probably thought about it more than I should have. I tried to learn from the experiences in the Saturday race and apply them to Sunday, which I did with pretty solid results.

We started the Sunday Sprint Cup race in 30th, which wasn’t ideal, but the No. 21 was pretty good for us and we were able to run strong all day. Depending on the pit strategy, we were either running near the top 10 or in about 20th.

We pitted during a caution period just after the 300-mile mark and that put us in 26th. We moved up to 18th and then another caution flag flew. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins decided to stay on the track and gain track position. That put us in 10th. We moved up as high as seventh and a couple more yellow flags helped us stretch the fuel even farther and validate Jeremy’s call, which was gutsy at the time.

The only downside to staying out was not getting fresh tires so we lost some spots on re-starts and ended up finishing 12th. Overall, though, it was a good call. It was the only way we were going to get a decent finish. That was the right call for sure and he did a good job making it.

The other great thing about the Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard was that the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion’s paint scheme was designed by 8-year-old Maryn Winters of Basehor, Kan. It was part of her prize for winning the Race Car Design Contest for JDRF Hosted by Motorcraft and Quick Lane Tire and Auto Centers.

Maryn and her family were with the team all weekend and she rode with me around the track after intros. It’s really cool to be part of this JDRF deal. It’s my first year and it’s interesting to learn about type 1 diabetes and good for me to learn about all the kids who have it and battle it. It makes you appreciate things more. It was great to have a good finish for them.

In our next race, we return to Michigan International Speedway for the Pure Michigan 400 where we always have fast cars.

Ryan Blaney is the son of Hartford native and former Sprint Cup driver Dave Blaney.