CONCORD, N.C. — Sure, Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 team have a large hurdle to overcome, but they don't have their backs against the wall just yet.
Videos by FanBuzz
They just have to be as close to perfect as possible in the final four Chase races in order to erase the 85-point deficit to championship leader Kyle Larson.
"It's gonna be hard for sure," Blaney said about making a charge. "I mean, if the f——— s—- was easy, then everyone would do it, right?
"So you know, this group isn't counting themselves out at all. The best thing we can do is show up at the track and go try to win and run very well, or at least just give our best effort. And that's what we're gonna do."
The Chase has featured both highs and lows for Blaney and the No. 12 team. This group has posted top-five finishes at Darlington Raceway, Kansas Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The No. 12 team also finished 35th at World Wide Technology Raceway and 33rd at Bristol Motor Speedway after being collected in crashes.
The top-fives don't fully tell the full tale. Blaney's team also had to overcome issues on pit road and being buried in the field due to rain washing out multiple qualifying sessions.
Sunday's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, in particular, saw Blaney have to mount another comeback. The 2023 Cup Series champion finished 10th in the opening stage and second in stage 2.
He also lost five spots on pit road with approximately 60 laps remaining. His pit crew bobbled on the tire exchange and lost precious seconds. Though he ultimately recovered on the long run to finish third.
This marked his third consecutive top-five finish on a 1.5-mile track, something that Team Penske didn't view as very possible earlier in the season. Intermediates were a trouble point for the Ford Racing-affiliated team.
"I think we've gained a step," Blaney said. "We're still about half a step behind (the Toyotas). The fire-off speed is just unbelievable. You know, it's just hard to keep up with them taking off, and I gain about half of it back at the end of a run.
"But obviously the math doesn't math there. So we've still got a little work to do, but I think we closed the gap somewhere to start. We're not throwing sinks at it anymore. It's small knobs."
Fortunately for Blaney, he now heads into the part of the Chase in which he should be in contention for multiple wins.
The next race takes place at Phoenix Raceway, a track where he has two wins and four runner-up finishes in the past eight races. He is the back-to-back defending winner at Phoenix.
After that, it's Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway. Blaney has three wins at Talladega and two wins at Martinsville in his Cup Series career. Both Martinsville wins have come in the fall race.
The final race of the season takes place at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Blaney doesn't have a win at this track in his Cup Series career, but he has three top-five finishes. This includes two runner-ups in 2023 and 2024.
Repeating this success at these tracks would go a long way toward helping Blaney cut into Larson's 85-point lead. The bonus points for wins, in particular, could make a huge difference.
This will not be easy considering that Larson has finished no worse than sixth in six Chase races while winning two times, but Blaney is not going to give up and just accept defeat.
"We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of hard work ahead," he said. "Try to go win a couple of them at least, and that's really all we can do. And if it happens, it happens. If not, we tried our best."
