NSCS: Keselowski and Logano Pleased to Helping Blaney

Ryan Blaney had plenty of support last weekend from his Team Penske teammates at the Kansas Speedway, the site of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut. Blaney was able to drive his way to a 27th-place finish after starting from the 21st spot.

 

Brad Keselowski, who came up through the ranks in a somewhat similar fashion as Blaney, made his way up to the Sprint Cup Series level with support from NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. One of the things enabling Keselowski to help his teammate is being able to understand what Earnhardt Jr. felt when helping him several years ago. The 2012 Sprint Cup championship winner says he feels good about giving back to the younger drivers what was given to him in the very beginnings of his NASCAR career.

 

Logano also had the same feelings for Blaney, who currently is in his second season over at Team Penske. He spoke about that because he was so fast in the two practices on Friday afternoon, in which Blaney was 17th in both sessions, and they were using part of Blaney’s setups for their cars. Blaney wasn’t all smiles through Friday, however, as Logano described. It was because of the 21st starting position, which Logano was able to coach Blaney through by telling him that no one is expecting him to blow up the world up in the first go around, and that it takes time. One of the things the two-time Sprint Cup Series winner this year is looking forward to is Blaney staying with Team Penske for the foreseeable future because the three of them work so well together from relating to a lot of things. What Blaney is going through right now is pretty much the same thing that Logano went through not too long ago when he was a rookie driving under the Joe Gibbs Racing banner. 

 

From Blaney’s perspective, hearing the two drivers being able to describe the Cup Series cars so much differently than maybe the Nationwide cars or the Truck Series automobiles is pretty impressive. Not only did Keselowski and Logano provide him feedback, but also many team members who were also a part of it. Blaney also noted that he is glad Logano is a driver over at Team Penske because he can look up to Logano from the way he has handled things with such a great job in the past, and apply it to him in this situation.

Over in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, which is where Blaney races full-time for Brad Keselowski Racing, he heads into Dover sitting ninth in the points standings, which is 39 points behind leader, Matt Crafton. Keselowski also mentioned Friday afternoon that one of the goals is to get him the championship because they don’t come around very often. After three races complete, and leading only five laps since the Daytona season opener, Blaney goes into Charlotte with an average finish of 11th.