Everyone has a weakness, even a NASCAR Cup champion. For the 2023 Cup champ, Ryan Blaney, the weakness lies in the desert of Nevada, and it’s called the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Penske driver hasn’t finished inside the top 30 since October 2024, as he recently opened up on why his result at Vegas was compromised last season.

Ryan Blaney looks forward to shaking off his Vegas blues

The last three times Ryan Blaney has raced in Vegas, his results have ended up being disastrous. In the 2025 playoff race, a tire issue in stage 1 forced him out of the race. Earlier that season, he had a 35th-place finish, which came in a weekend that saw him crash in practice, face a pit road issue, go laps down, and then get involved in a crash to end his race.

Because of his luck and results, Ryan Blaney has one simple goal for the upcoming race on Sunday: finish it.

“Number one goal is just to finish the Vegas race there in probably a year and a half. I feel like we’ve had pretty good speed there. It’s just, we’ve never been able to finish and whether that’s some tire issues or getting caught up in a wreck,” he described.

Blaney further confessed to his “mistake” in the 2025 spring race, which he had initially blamed on Christopher Bell.

“I made the mistake in the fall there or the spring there last year, I caused that wreck. I didn’t realize how many cars were to my outside and kind of pinched them and I was self-induced,” he said.

Further talking about Vegas, Ryan Blaney said from a speed standpoint, it has been a good racetrack for him in the past. He credited the track for always putting on a good show as well.

Having said that, the only thing he emphasized he wants to see in Vegas on Sunday is the checkered flag.

Blaney points to a key element for drivers’ title hopes in 2026

For the 2026 season, NASCAR let go of the playoff championship format and instead re-embraced the Chase format. Because of that, points are having more significance once again. Talking about points, Ryan Blaney claimed that in 2026, stage points will be ‘super important.’

“If you’re leading the race in Stage 1, do you flip it? Do you take the stage points? Those are the hard decisions you’ve got to make, if you’re leading or running second. I think it’s going to play a huge factor in this points system. I think it’s really important, especially early, when everyone’s super-close,” he described as per Heavy.

Blaney added that even late in the season, right before the Chase begins, points will hold their significance for drivers around the cutline. Currently, Blaney is second in points with 165, with Tyler Reddick in 1st place with 225. But while the points gap between the first and second is quite significant, the gap between Blaney and AJ Allmendinger in 13th is almost the same.

Therefore, the importance of points for everyone, including Ryan Blaney, is pretty evident in the regular season for 2026.