MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Ryan Blaney must win Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway to advance to the Championship 4 for the third consecutive season. Points do not matter.
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Blaney has a clear objective, but it became significantly more difficult after he qualified 31st at the Virginia short track on Saturday. Now, he will have to work his way through the field over 500 laps.
So how will he balance having the patience to ride around, avoiding damage in the process, and the need to use the bumper to get to the front of the pack?
"It depends what moment of the race it is," Blaney said in response to a question from FanBuzz. "I compare it to like last year when I was third and kind of running down the 9 (Chase Elliott) and the 5 (Kyle Larson).
"The 9 got around the 5, and I laid the bumper to the 5 pretty quickly because I didn't have time. I didn't have time to sit behind somebody with 20 laps to go in the race. You kind of have to move forward and not get stuck behind somebody because they can make your life hell sitting behind them."
Last season's playoff race at Martinsville Speedway also featured Blaney in a must-win situation. He needed to win to advance to the Championship 4. He could not simply erase a 38-point deficit by running inside of the top 10 all afternoon.
He did exactly what he needed. He worked his way through the field and passed other championship-hopeful drivers during a frantic final stage. Blaney used the bumper some, but he did not blatantly wreck any other drivers.
A more methodical approach helped him get his second playoff win at Martinsville Speedway and a ticket to the Championship 4.
"Gosh, last year was an awesome finish of the race between me, Chase, and Kyle," Blaney said. "Three guys under a blanket duking it out, and we were able to come out on top.
"I expect the same thing (on Sunday) - hard racing all the way through and fairly clean racing, you hope. There's gonna be contact, but you just hope it doesn't turn into a cluster like we've seen here in the past. I think we've been doing it the right way and the way Martinsville is supposed to be raced."
Blaney does not oppose using the bumper to work past drivers on short tracks It's an inherent part of the NASCAR experience. He just prefers to pass people cleanly.
As he explained during the race weekend at Pocono Raceway earlier this season, his father taught him to race with respect.
Blaney can be more aggressive if someone does something to him, but he won't necessarily be the one who initiates contact. He has no desire to punt someone entering a corner, even if a spot in the Championship 4 is on the line.
Not that the thought won't cross his mind on Sunday afternoon if he's counting down the laps and watching his championship hopes start to fade.
"As a driver, that's what you're weighing in the moment and it can also say, Hey, if you're working a guy over for 20-30 laps and there's a group behind you that's catching you, I've got to go," Blaney said.
"'I can't risk losing two or three spots because you're holding me up and I've played nice for 30 laps. I've kind of got to get moving.' So it's all situational to me of what time it is in the race, or what position you're in front and back."
