AVONDALE, Ariz. — One spot - that is all that prevented Ryan Blaney from winning his second Cup Series championship. Yet, the team believes this near-miss boils down to a different factor. They just lacked consistency at a pivotal time.
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"I think if you look back, the DNF at Vegas really kind of put us behind," crew chief Jonathan Hassler said after Blaney won Sunday's race at Phoenix Raceway. "I think we ran well enough at Martinsville and Talladega to probably make it to this round.
"Really I think that's probably something we have to go back and really understand how we got ourselves kind of into that hole. I think typically our strength as a team is consistency. We kind of lacked it when we needed it the most at Las Vegas."
Blaney and Hassler enjoyed their most productive season together in terms of basic statistics despite posting seven DNFs in the first 20 races.
The No. 12 team posted 19 top-10 finishes, 15 top-fives, and four wins. These are the team's best numbers since Hassler took over as crew chief in 2022.
However, the season did not end as the last two. Blaney and the No. 12 team won the Cup Series championship in 2023 and then finished second last season.
They did not make the Championship 4 this season after a flat tire led to a crash at Las Vegas motor Speedway. Blaney fell into essentially a must-win situation heading to Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway, where he finished 23rd and second, respectively.
Blaney actually had the lead at Martinsville and an opportunity to win his third consecutive playoff race at the short track, but William Byron took the lead with 44 laps to go. Byron won the elimination race while Blaney failed to advance to the Championship 4.
One week later, Blaney went out and won at Phoenix Raceway for the first time in his career. It just didn't matter in the championship battle. Kyle Larson won the title by finishing third.
"I try not to think about that," Blaney said about falling short of the Championship 4. "Living in the past if you're thinking that way. We were in the spot that we were in. Our goal this weekend was to try to win the race, have great momentum going into the wintertime.
"Understood that we weren't going for a championship, but we were going to make the best out of it. I wouldn't say it's like bittersweet. I enjoy it just like any other win. Great we were able to go out and get it done today.
"I do find it ironic that my first win here is not in the championship, but at the same time, no, I'm not beating ourselves up over what happened last week. We're going to enjoy this one as much as we can, because it was the goal for this weekend."
While Hassler acknowledged that a lack of consistency at a pivotal point of the season that prevented another championship run, Blaney pointed to the way his team has grown this season. They have steadily improved as the entire team has grown together.
This group has just fallen short of the championship multiple times due to the nature of the NASCAR playoff format, which will change ahead of the 2026 season.
At this point, all the team can do is just keep trying to build some more consistency during one of the shortest offseasons in sports. They have no reason to look back at what could have been. They can just focus on the little details that make or break a championship season.
"Yes, I would have liked to have run for a championship. I understand, like, it just didn't work out for us," Blaney said. "We were great. I thought this team was great. It just didn't really play out to where we had a shot at it. You have to live with that type of stuff.
"I'm very proud of this whole group. It's great to go out with a win and carry some momentum into next year. We'll look at some things that we think we can improve. Try to keep building better and better every single year. Whether it was a great year or a terrible year, you just try to get better."
