AVONDALE, Ariz. — Ryan Blaney made history for Team Penske when he won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway one day after Josef Newgarden won the NTT IndyCar Series race at the track.
Blaney, who battled from the back of the pack multiple times en route to his 18th Cup Series triumph, knew after Newgarden won he had to finish the job.
“You don’t want to mess it up. We had three out of the four boxes checked. We had IndyCar pole, Cup pole, IndyCar win. You got to finish it out, right?” Blaney said.
“Yeah, there’s a little more internal pressure because you don’t want to be the guys that don’t finish out the whole weekend for RP.”
Newgarden and his IndyCar teammates David Malukas and Scott McLaughlin stuck around for Sunday’s race with Newgarden sporting a Ryan Blaney shirt.
“How about that, Josef wearing a Ryan Blaney shirt. It was awesome,” Blaney said. “It was cool to have those guys be on the same racetrack this weekend. Like, that was a fun weekend for us. I love watching IndyCar racing. I cheer on Scottie and Josef and David every single week. I just am a fan of that.
“Josef put the pressure on us yesterday. He let us know that at our Penske dinner last night. He said this weekend is going to be absolutely ruined if you guys don’t do it on Sunday. So he put the pressure on us.”
Blaney said it was important to win with team owner Roger Penske on hand.
“I was happy to do it today. It’s always special to win for Roger,” he said. “On a weekend like this, where he put a lot into having these two series together, and it going the way it did up until today, for us to finish it out today was definitely neat. It was cool that those guys stuck around. All three of those guys stuck around. It was fun to see them in victory lane, too.”
Blaney’s 18th victory tied him with Harry Gant, Geoff Bodine, Neil Bonnett, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman on the all-time wins list.
“It’s neat. I didn’t know that, that I tied those guys. Big fan of those guys. Obviously, Neil Bonnett, I got to know a lot about him when I ran for the Wood Brothers. Eddie and Len had a lot of amazing stories with Neil,” Blaney said. “Obviously I grew up a huge Kasey Kahne fan. I got to race with Kasey for a long time and loved him in the 9 days, things like that.
“Just special to be part of the group of those guys with Cup wins. Just happy to be part of a group like that. It means a lot.”