Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion and last week’s Pocono (Pa.) Raceway winner Ryan Blaney reiterated his strong motivation to win Sunday’s Brickyard 400 – at a track owned by his boss Roger Penske and for a team that’s IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden won the Indianapolis 500 in May.
In fact, Blaney, smiled, and promised, “Kissing the bricks is like a dream come true, I’ll lick the bricks if I win, that’s for sure. It’s going be nasty but it’s going to happen.
“Kissing the bricks, that’s just what everyone wants to do. … to be able to do that with RP (Penske), that would be like the coolest moment in my life.
“We know how special this place is, it’s not even talked about in our camp,” the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford continued. “You just know what it means. It’s meant the world even since I got there in 2012 before he [Penske] owned the race track.
“We have a unique opportunity to sweep Indy this year with Josef winning the 500 and us coming here and having a good shot on the NASCAR side, so there’s a cool opportunity to do something special. That’s what you want to do for our team, you want to make memories and do well by his race team and do well by him. Big weekend and a lot of pressure on us, but this race team likes pressure.”
Blaney’s best showing in six Indianapolis oval starts is seventh place in 2019.
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