Sure, Ryan Blaney would have preferred to have qualified better than 17th in Sunday’s knockout time trials for the Daytona 500, but he’ll have plenty of time to redeem himself in Thursday night’s Gander RV Duel and the race that follows on Sunday.

“We haven’t drafted with our 500 car yet, but I stress out the least about qualifying here, because you have a chance in the Duels to get better. I think we qualified around there last year (15th), and we went out and won our Duel and were really good in the 500.”

Ryan Blaney, comments between qualifying and the Advance Auto Parts Clash.

What’s most important to Blaney is fine-tuning his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang to work well in the draft.

“I mainly look for how my car drives—if it’s going to drive well and make aggressive moves. Sometimes it seems the cars that qualify the best don’t handle great in the 500, so I think that was our strong point last year.

“We could make really aggressive moves, and our car did have decent speed, so we have chances to get up there, but we’ll see.”

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske No. 12