Ryan Blaney taunted by NASCAR rival at Watkins Glen

NASCAR Cup Series star Ryan Blaney has revealed that a playoff rival took a dig at him after he secured pole for Sunday's race at Watkins Glen.

Shane van Gisbergen has dominated road courses all year on his way to three wins and an early playoff lock, but Blaney and the No. 12 crew just edged him out in qualifying on Saturday.

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That result was obviously an excellent one for Blaney as he looks to rack up playoff points ahead of the start of the postseason, but he revealed later that Bubba Wallace approached him with a warning after the session.

Not only does Van Gisbergen pride himself on his road course performances, but he was later wrecked out in Saturday's Xfinity Series race by team-mate Connor Zilisch when leading, leaving him with a lot of frustration to work out on the track on Sunday evening.

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Blaney: Nice if I could learn from SVG

Speaking to the media after qualifying, Blaney revealed: “Bubba actually came up to me after qualifying and said, ‘Congrats, but now he’s going to make you look really bad'. So I was like, ‘Hey, one day at a time. I beat him one day'. Tomorrow is going to be a lot different and more difficult task for sure.

“It’s nice to qualify well. Obviously qualify next to Shane and his talents and at some point of the race, hopefully we are racing each other to where I can maybe pick up a few things like seeing it with my own two eyes in front of me.

“A lot of it is stuff you can’t see, like it’s in the car that he does. But I think maybe seeing some of the stuff from my seat, I might be able to learn from that. Whenever you can learn from the best guys out there, and obviously he is the very best at the road course stuff, it’s always nice. I try to take all that and absorb it.”

The three-time Supercars champion has become a subject of curiosity in the NASCAR world, with the Australian typically using his right foot to brake as well as accelerate, leaving his left free to operate the clutch, a key part of his road course dominance.

Blaney himself has admitted in the past that it would be 'all he would work on' if he was allowed to run tests in a Cup Series car every day, while Kyle Larson has also spoken about it this year, admitting: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks...like, there’s zero chance I can learn how to do that."

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