Opportunity knocks for Blaney in race to the NASCAR Chase

Whatever chance Ryan Blaney has to win the NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship, and the number one Chase for the Championship seed that comes with it, Sunday afternoon at Iowa will be instrumental.

Blaney is 120 points behind Denny Hamlin for the championship lead with four races left until The Chase. He is 36 points behind Tyler Reddick for second in the standings. All of this is important because the points are reset before the final 10 races.

The regular season champion will start with a 25-point reset advantage over second and 35 over third and five subsequent points per position through the top 16.

Blaney will start on the pole on Sunday while Hamlin is going to be near the back of the field will an uphill climb to score stage points. In other words, this could represent a huge swing in his realistic championship odds if they finish the way they start with Hamlin not scoring stage points.

“Jonathan (Hassler, crew chief) and I have discussed it a little bit,” Blaney said. “At the end of the day, I don’t think we’re out of it. We don’t look too much at it. We try to do the best job that we can. We try to maximize our points. We try to win the race.

“But I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that we can get there. Is it plausible? Who knows. Things swing up and down. The (11) group is obviously really good. He can come through the field.

“So I’m focused on how the start of the race will go and what I have to do tomorrow. One lap at a time.”

With all of that said, short tracks are very good for the Team Penske No. 12 in recent years.

“Here, Richmond, Loudon and even Daytona, is a very strong end of the season for our group and the tracks where we excel. Its a big opportunity. I just hope we keep the speed we’ve had and execute.”

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Hamlin suffered brake issues every time he went out on track during the practice and qualifying sessions and could only go 32nd fastest in time trials.

“Certainly can’t race like it currently is for sure,” Hamlin said.

These were issues also shared by Chase Briscoe and Riley Herbst.

“Neither of us had any brakes,” he said.

And while it might be self-explanatory, Hamlin also said running a full race tomorrow without brakes would be problematic.

“You can’t get another corner as deep and you can’t race,” Hamlin said. “Obviously, you got to have both pedals at a short track, for sure.”

Even if they fix the brakes, Hamlin did not get any usable data from practice whatsoever. He said his Chris Gayle led No. 11 team will have to figuratively stick their thumbs in the air to decide what setup decisions to make.

“Yeah, I mean, not ideal,” Hamlin said. “The first five laps I went out when everything was cold, everything was okay. I felt the car had decent speed and had a good balance to it. Certainly, better than what we’ve been here in the past, but unfortunately just didn’t get more practice than that.”

Reddick will start in the top 5, and did not have brake issues so far, and also has a chance to make gains on Hamlin.

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