Post-race transcript of Ryan Blaney's first NASCAR win

   Media Center interviews following 18-year-old Ryan Blaney's victory Saturday night in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway. Blaney became the series' all-time youngest winner. He also gave Brade Keselowski Racing its first victory.

   Ryan Blaney (No. 29 Cooper Standard RAM) Race Winner
   YOU ARE THE SEVENTH FIRST TIME WINNER IN THE SERIES THIS YEAR, THE 12TH DIFFERENT WINNER IN 15 RACES. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CAPTURE THIS WIN FOR BRAD KESELOWSKI RACING? “Well it definitely really special. Like you said, getting the first one for Brad Keselowski Racing, that’s great, that I could do it here. This Trucks team really means a lot to him and for me to do that for him really means a lot. We were good all weekend. We were not as good as the 7 truck (Parker Kligerman) leading up into the race. I think we could hang with the 7 truck in the race. He was a little bit better than us on long runs but it seemed like on restarts we were better than him for about five or seven laps and then at the end on restarts it kind of played to our advantage. I knew if we were just side-by-side with some second place guy getting into one, we were probably going to beat ‘em off of two. We were just strong on restarts all night. It was good to have Cooper Standard on board and here in Iowa where half my family is. Overall just a good night to have my family here; it was a good night so hopefully we can have some more.”

   Doug Randolph (Crew Chief, No. 29 Cooper Standard RAM)
   WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU TO BE ABLE TO COME TO IOWA WITH RYAN IN HIS THIRD START AND CAPTURE THE WIN? “Well I mean it’s a great feeling. It was really fun tonight watching Ryan and he made some incredible passes. I really want to thank Brad for giving us all this opportunity. He’s really helped us. We know we’ve been behind with our program and he’s allowed us to continue to improve and make it better. I really enjoy and it’s pretty neat to be here with Ryan and Dave ‘cause my first crew chiefing job was with Dave and you know I felt like there was a lot of nights that we should have been sitting right here and it didn’t quite work out. I felt like a couple of ‘em got away and it’s great to come full circle and make it happen with Ryan.”

   Dave Blaney (Ryan Blaney’s Father)
   YOU GOT HERE THIS AFTERNOON RIGHT BEFORE THE START OF THE RACE. TALK ABOUT GETTING TO THE TRACK AND BEING HERE WITH RYAN AND A PART OF HIS FIRST WIN. “I was glad I could get over. It sounded like it went really well yesterday and this morning in practice and you know Ryan was fired up. Like Doug said, he did a tremendous job all night in traffic, ran really hard when he needed to and not so much when he didn’t. He just did it all right. You know Doug made a really good call on tires there midway through the race. It ended up being the perfect call and got him in position and brought it home.”

   Ryan Blaney: WHY WERE THERE SO MANY CAUTIONS TONIGHT? “You tell me. I couldn’t see ‘em all. All I knew is I’d run a lap, get away about three truck lengths and then a caution would come out. I’m not sure why there were so many at the end and so little there in the middle of the race. Guys just getting antsy I guess.”

   YOU LIKED TO RESTART ON THE HIGH SIDE. WAS THAT AN ADVANTAGE? “Well in the K&N car we always start on the high side. You can get over the bump better and you can kind of pinch that guy down in one and just limit his room to get a run off the corner. It’s really just getting over the bump a lot better than the guy so you choose the outside if you’re the leader there.”

   Dave Blaney: HOW SPECIAL IS IT FOR YOU BECAUSE ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST WINS CAME JUST DOWN THE ROAD HERE? “Well that’s true. My wife is from within an hour of here and her whole family is close and a lot of ‘em were here tonight. That’s a very cool thing. I’m just glad I was here to see it. You know I got to see his first K&N win at Phoenix last fall and this one. He does a really nice job and he’s coming along so quick it’s just cool to be a part of it. You know I can’t thank Brad Keselowski and everybody at Penske enough for having the faith in him to go ahead and run him in all this stuff and look at his future and Brad’s been instrumental in bringing Ryan along and help him get through the learning process here.”

   Ryan Blaney: HAVE YOU HEARD FROM BRAD YET? WHAT DID HE HAVE TO SAY IF YOU’VE HEARD FROM HIM? “I haven’t heard from him yet. Haven’t had my phone on me. Probably going to call him here in a little bit.”

   WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU’RE GOING TO TELL HIM WHEN YOU TALK TO HIM? “Probably thank you for giving me this opportunity and letting me drive his truck. It’s been great getting in with Penske and getting in with Brad. I’ve learned a whole lot from him in just about a month and a half that I’ve been close to him. I think we just keep building on our relationship making his team better, me getting better and hopefully we’ll have even a lot better runs here, a lot better finishes here.”

   YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO RUN BOTH THE TRUCK AND NATIONWIDE RACES AT KENTUCKY. WHAT DOES THIS WIN DO FOR YOUR MOMENTUM HEADING INTO NEXT WEEKEND? “Well every time you win the week before it always boosts your team, boosts your self-confidence going into the next week. It’s really just a bonus and everyone is all fired up from the previous week. And as a driver confidence is a really big thing driving race cars. Your confidence level is just sky high when you win the week before. So I think it’s just always an added bonus being the winners the previous week and everyone always looks out for you.”              

NASCAR mandates safety changes

   Earlier this week, NASCAR issued technical bulletins in both the Cup and Nationwide series that address a safety enhancement to the driver’s roll cage and will take effect beginning in January 2013.

    The cars in both series will feature an additional forward roof bar and a center roof support bar that will intersect near the front center of the roll cage. This addition comes following extensive testing at the NASCAR research and development center in Concord.

    NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said the intent was to strengthen the top front area of the roll cage in the event of a car rolling over. The change can be made to cars this year but is not mandatory until 2013.

Look out for the NASCAR traffic jam

   The garage area every weekend at NASCAR races is probably the busiest area of the track, particularly when practice sessions are underway and cars are running laps, returning to the garage for adjustments, then heading back out to the track to test them.

   Friday afternoon, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. were involved in a NASCAR version of the fender-bender.

   As Keselowski was leaving the garage area to head to the track a NASCAR official waved at him. Keselowski thought it was a signal to stop, so he did. However, Truex was directly behind him and ran into the rear of Keselowski's No. 2 Dodge.

   Both cars suffered cosmetic damage and neither team had to move to a backup car.

   "My bad, totally my fault," said Truex, who like Keselowski, is among the 12 drivers competing in this season's Chase for the Sprint Cup. "I looked up and Keselowski just slammed the brakes on and I just hit him.

   "You get in a hurry getting out of the garage and it was just hard to see what the (official) was doing."

   Keselowski's crew chief, Paul Wolfe, said it wasn't a big issue. "It didn't affect us other than losing a few minutes of practice," he said.

Who do NASCAR fans support in the presidential election?

   Mixing politics and sports generally produces a toxic combination and it's certainly true among NASCAR fans as well.

   In recent years, however, there has been considerable discussion in politics among the NASCAR fan as a voting demographic. After all, there is a reason Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has made two appearances at NASCAR races this season (although because of bad weather he has yet to see a green-flag lap of racing).

   This week is the first time I've come across any stories about this year's presidential election that include polling results of the two main candidates specifically broken down among self-described "NASCAR fans."

   The results were surprising.

   A new JZ Analytics national poll of likely voters released Thursday showed President Obama leading Romney 47.7 percent to 42 percent. It also indicated Romney is not polling well as expected among some conservative demographic groups: NASCAR fans, evangelicals, and the so-called “Walmart voters.”

   According to JZ Analytics pollster John Zogby, Romney leads Obama 48.4 to 44.6 percent among voters who shop weekly at Walmart. He narrowly trails Obama among self-identified "NASCAR fans," 44 percent to 43 percent.

   “That’s a number you would never expect to see,” Zogby said.

   For more on the JZ Analytics poll released Thursday, go here.

  

10 Most Popular Driver finalists named

    The National Motorsports Press Association announced the 10 finalists for the NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award. With more than a half-million votes cast, the top 10 drivers that earned the most votes will now be reset to zero with voting continuing over the next 10 weeks, coinciding with the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

   The 10 finalists are, in alphabetical order: Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart.

   Fans now have 10 race weeks to cast their vote once a day at www.mostpopulardriver.com to determine the winner from the final 10 drivers. Voting will conclude Nov. 18 at 11:59 PM ET and the winner will be announced at the NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Luncheon in November.

   Dale Earnhardt Jr. collected his ninth consecutive Most Popular Driver award at the end of the 2011 campaign, joining Bill Elliott as the only drivers to win the award eight years straight. Elliott holds the record for most consecutive Most Popular Driver wins with 10, and he also holds the record for total wins with 16.

We interupt the NASCAR Chase to bring you a race

   We interrupt this year’s Chase by pausing to reflect on the race.

   Once again 12 drivers this weekend will begin their quest for the Sprint Cup Series championship with Sunday’s kickoff of the 10-race sprint to the title.

   And once again, the other 31 drivers in the field will take a back seat for the rest of the season to the media attention, whether it’s TV, radio or print.

   There is an argument to be made that those who don’t perform well enough to make the Chase haven’t earned the right to such exposure.

   In general there is merit to that argument, but it assumes a fact not in evidence: Race fans are fans of their particular driver all season – all 38 points and non-points races – not just the first 26 races of the season.

   In other words, fans of Carl Edwards and are still looking to follow Edwards the same way in the final 10 races as they did in the first 26 points races, regardless of whether he made the Chase.

   This has always been struggle of the Chase format.

   Indeed, it creates multiple new storylines at the end of the season, but those new storylines overshadow many of the ones that typically covered when the Chase is not underway.

   NASCAR veteran Mark Martin has been outspoken in his career about how winning individual races was once held in far more reference than it is today.

   In large part that is because winning the Chase – and the issues affecting its participants – become the focus of attention in the final 10 races.

   Martin, who is running a partial schedule and not in the Chase, reiterated his stance again this week.

   “We race for the same reasons that we raced before the Chase started and that’s to win. The Chase does a lot of wonderful things, but it isn't the only thing going on. The event is about winning,” Martin said.

   “Clint Bowyer won Richmond. That to me is more important than points. The championship, the points and the Chase all do add to what we do. I am not degrading it. But I also think in today’s age that winning a race is underrated.”

   You can’t say it better than that.

Team swap at Richard Petty Motorsports

    Richard Petty Motorsports  announced on Monday it had swapped the crew chiefs and team members between its Nos. 9 and 43 Sprint Cup Series teams, effective this weekend.

   Mike Ford will serve as crew chief for driver Marcos Ambrose on the No. 9 Ford team while crew chief Todd Parrott has been assigned to driver Aric Almirola's No. 43 Ford team. In addition, team members from both teams will also make the switch.

   RPM currently has one win, three poles, 10 top-10 and three top-five finishes this season in the Cup series between the two teams. The team was also in position to make the Chase for the second consecutive season with Ambrose.

   "We're continuing to make improvements at Richard Petty Motorsports and we've added talented people to our organization this season," said Sammy Johns, director of competition. "This move is to make sure that we are using that talent to the fullest to get the best results for our teams each weekend. We feel this adjustment will strengthen the organization, allow us to continue to compete for wins and ultimately challenge for championships."

   Ford and Parrott are both veteran, winning crew chiefs. Parrott has one Cup championship, a Daytona 500 victory and 31 Cup wins to his credit. Ford has six Chase berths and 25 Cup wins on his resume.

   "Aric has really shown the desire and dedication to get his first Sprint Cup Series win," Parrott said. "It was great our team helped lead Marcos to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win and poles. We are now ready to help direct Almirola and the No. 43 team to the same results and better."
  

   Ford is also ready to work with Ambrose and the No. 9 race team. "Marcos is a racer who has proven to win poles and races," Ford said. "Our goal is to take my experiences and make sure we can consistently run up front and continue to win races."