Ryan Blaney Has “All the Confidence in the World” in the 2026 Championship Chase

Till Kyle Larson won last Sunday’s race at Gateway, Team Penske Racing’s 2023 Cup champion Ryan Blaney was the only non-Toyota driver expected to give the TRD contingent a real fight for the 2026 championship. The Team Penske Racing veteran is currently P4 in the table, 33 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.

Recently the Ford driver talked about his championship hopes and the tough competition from the Toyota drivers. He highlighted how TRD drivers have been the standard in the intermediate cars this season and how the Ford Mustangs have become good enough to be now closer to them, as they get ready for the Bristol Night Race.

It’s definitely a fair point. The Toyotas have been really, really good at the intermediates; that has shown all year. I feel like we have gotten closer, even though we haven’t had a mile-and-a-half in a little bit.

Ryan Blaney said about his championship hopes.

They still need more work to do behind the scenes on the mile-and-a-half tracks and explained how Joey Logano at Indy was the closest they been matching Camry’s pace at that type of track this year. Ryan Blaney is fully confident about his team and their capability, as he believes they will match JGR’s pace soon.

The closest one I can look at recently is Indy, and granted, it’s way different, but I thought Joey was really good at Indy. I thought he had a car that could contend for the win there. So, I think we’re closer, and I have all the confidence in the world in the work we’ve been doing here at Team Penske to try to improve those places.

Ryan Blaney added via RACER.com.

Further talking about the point, Blaney admitted that Toyota has an historic as well as the momentum advantage at the moment for the upcoming venues. But he knows his team can pull off some miracles and get him race victories.

Even though historically they’ve (Toyota) been a little better, I’m still very optimistic that we can go and try to be better and try to contend there. But yes, you’re going to have to be in touch because then you only have four left after those, and tracks that have been good for us in the past.

Ryan Blaney asserted.

Ryan Blaney explains how the math should work for him to be a champion

In the same conversation later Blaney talked how the match should work for him to win the 2026 championship. He highlighted how they consistently have to score enough points to get within 40 points deficits to the 2026 championship leader Hamlin by the fifth race week of the chase to be in the title contention.

If you can come out of Charlotte within 40 points, that’s 10 points a week. That is very achievable. That is three or four spots in each stage and three or four spots at the end of the race. So, I think that’s a decent area to be in, but no matter where you’re at, you’re never going to give up. But I guess that’s a number that popped into my head because four to go, 40 points, just 10 weeks. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is a fair amount. I think you’re within striking distance there.

Ryan Blaney said.

Further talking about the point, the Ford driver pointed out he is striking distance to win the second championship of his career. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming days.

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