At the Nashville Superspeedway, Ryan Blaney snatched his first win of the 2025 season. This allows him to seal a Playoff berth, joining teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric. The 2023 Cup Series champion ended a 14-race dry spell with a dominant display as Team Penske flexed its proverbial muscles. After five DNFs streak of bad mishaps with the engines, the #12 team finally crossed the line, this time around.

By no means is Blaney all set and ready to compete for the playoffs. There have been issues that kept him from winning his first race, and he got candid about the areas of improvement. He didn’t highlight a single shortcoming; rather spoke from a team lens and how his team has progressed after setbacks.

“Honestly, nothing stands out in my mind, like ‘we have to really improve on this’. It’s a constant thing, sometime you have a little bit of issues on pit road. We worked really hard on that. I have to do some things better on my side, that I’m not really happy with. Still feel like there’s a lot of potential there for me to get better. Whether that’s the preparation, the thinking from Saturday to Sunday, through the race. There’s always little things – I don’t think they’re weaknesses – but I just love where our group is at.” Blaney said this in an interview with Kevin Harvick.

There was a time when Blaney struggled on the pit road due to sluggish stops. He had the win in his grasp at Darlington, but his pit crew was not on their toes, and it was Denny Hamlin who bagged the win despite not being the most dominant car. Back then, he mentioned working on the pit road, and Team Penske made the changes. Keiston France was named as the new tire changer, taking over the duties from Ryan Flores. So, they’ve got a steady ship now, looking to weed out any mistakes.

“I think that the biggest thing for us is, Team Penske and everybody started off the year really strong, really fast. How do you keep building off of that? You don’t want to get complacent, get relaxed and say,’ Well, you know what we got going to the track, is working. So we’re not going to continue to keep our minds open and develop how to get better and better.’ This team does a great job of that, no matter the success or the struggles, they’re always just working, what’s the next step? So I wouldn’t say there’s a ton of weak spots right now. Just little things that I feel we can clean up.”

Sure, he could ask for better engines and better luck on the racetrack. Other than that, the driver of the #12 car has done well for himself. In fact, Blaney credited his win to his #12 team and Team Penske after a grueling few weeks after the IndyCar controversy.  “Penske cars are bad because the IndyCar guys got caught and that’s why we were bad at Charlotte. We come here tonight and kick everyone’s a—. Ebbs and flows of this sport, it’s crazy.”

However, Blaney was also open about his weakness, heading into a stretch of road course races after the Michigan race weekend.

Blaney is trying to overcome his road course racing skills

In hindsight, the win at Nashville couldn’t have come at a better time for Blaney. After the Michigan race weekend, the Cup Series schedule will go on a roller coaster ride. Down in Mexico City, to the streets of Chicago, this will be followed by races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen. Only true oval or non-speedway races will be at Dover, Iowa, the Brickyard, and Darlington.

When asked about his road racing prowess, Blaney didn’t flinch; rather accepted his flaws and affirmed that he has worked hard to get better at tracks, where they have to turn right as well. “I’m not the best road course racer, I’m average at the best. I work really hard on it. Trying to figure out where can I be better and compare myself to the good guys. That’s the biggest thing for me personally, like I need to get better at road courses.”

At best, he has the top 10 results at road courses in the Next Gen era. So a win at Nashville came at the right time. Imagine Blaney going up against SVG, AJ Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick, or Chris Buescher at these tracks in a must-win situation. #12 fans certainly took a sigh of relief after last weekend, as they can now navigate their plans for the playoffs.