CHARLOTTE, NC. – After eight seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, Ryan Blaney has emerged from his cocoon–and it’s a glorious thing.
He’s funny. He’s feisty. And most important, he’s competitive.
While it took six years for the 29-year-old third-generation racer to be more than just a one-win-per-season wonder, Blaney’s metamorphosis is reaching a crescendo at the ideal moment—as he enters the Championship 4 Round for the first time in his career.
“When we got home from Phoenix last year, Ryan was able to reflect,” said Blaney’s crew chief, Jonathan Hassler. “He had a teammate (Joey Logano) that won the championship, and (Blaney) made a couple of mistakes in the weeks leading up to that that probably took him out of that seat. He realized how close we were, and he went to work in the offseason to try and figure out how to maintain his emotions and finish out races.
“Having speed has never been a problem. Just finishing out races is something he’s had to work on. He put a lot of effort into it in the offseason, and we’re seeing the results.”
Team Penske struggled to be competitive during the regular season. In the first 26 races, Blaney and Logano scored one win each. Logano was knocked out of the Playoffs in the first round—the first time a defending champion has fallen so quickly. The organization faced some tough conversations following that Bristol weekend in September and went to work.
Blaney squeaked into the Round of 12—then wrecked in the first race at Texas Motor Speedway. He refused to let his title hopes fade. He won the following week at Talladega Superspeedway to advance to the Round of 8. In the last three races, Blaney’s average finish is third.
Knowing the effort exerted by the driver and the organization, it’s understandable that Blaney bristled following his win at Martinsville on Sunday night when asked about being lucky.
“I don’t think anything has been lucky about it,” Blaney said. “The last three weeks, we’ve been running amazing. We ran up front in Vegas. We had a chance to win at Homestead. We won today. I don’t think there’s any luck that goes into this. There may be lucky moments…
“We’ve worked really hard to get to the point that we need to with speed, and our group’s executed very good races. They deserve to be here. I mean, yeah, luck, you can interpret luck how you want. The performance side, you still have to bring fast race cars, race cars capable to win.
“We’ve done that. I think that is the biggest thing about our success, is everyone’s done a good job of figuring out how to get better, where to be better, applying it and having fast cars.”
Hassler witnessed a turning point with his driver at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May when Blaney won one of NASCAR’s crown jewels—the Coca-Cola 600. That race is a marathon, a 600-mile test of man and machine. Blaney qualified eighth, won the third stage and led 163 laps en route to his first win in 20 months.
“The length of that race and the amount of time you have to keep it together, it was a huge testament to him and the progress he’s made to be able to win that race,” Hassler said.
Blaney didn’t score another top five until his Talladega win, but since that victory he has elevated his performance. No longer is there a “WELCOME” mat behind the fender of the No. 12 Ford as Denny Hamlin found out at both Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville when the two drivers were racing for position.
Blaney called Hamlin a hack after Homestead, playing on the moniker the veteran driver placed on Alex Bowman. Blaney said he was half joking last week.
“You guys have been saying for a while I’m too nice,” Blaney said with a grin. “And I did say a couple of years ago if I start not being as nice, I don’t want to hear about it. So, I guess we’re in that spot.”
Still, the days of Blaney cutting breaks for fellow competitors such as Hamlin are over, as evidenced by the drivers’ body slams midway through Martinsville while battling for the lead.
“Oh, you definitely have to take,” Blaney said. “In the Playoffs, there’s no give anymore, right? It’s all take and that’s what you’ve got to do. And people approach it differently. Everybody is different in how much they take and how they take it.
“But you can’t give anymore. If you’re giving, you’re going backward. It just depends on what spot you’re in, right? But in the Playoffs, it’s hard to give. You have to be on the aggressive side and take. That’s just the nature of what it is.”
Hassler, who was named crew chief of the No. 12 at the start of 2022, has noticed the feistier side of Blaney as well. He admires his driver’s ability to channel that energy.
“It’s certainly just a balance of managing that fire,” Hassler said. “Fire can do good things for you and it can do bad things for you. I think with time, he’s had to figure out how to control it and do the best for it that it could.
“He’s made a lot of progress with how he manages himself. He’s been able to put together better races.”
After Sunday’s win, Blaney admitted he hasn’t been as dominant in the Cup Series as he would like compared with other drivers and friends around his age who entered the sport at the same time. Rather than dwell on his shortcomings, Blaney said it motivates him to be better.
“That’s helped me out this year,” Blaney said. “It’s hard to do. You’re picking out your flaws. ‘You suck at this, this and this. Let’s change things up to make it better.’
“Sometimes that’s hard to kind of admit. You don’t ever want to admit your flaws. I think it’s helpful for growth.”
And grow he has. After a decade of racing stock cars, on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, Blaney will be one of four drivers battling for the Cup title.
“It’s definitely hard to do it, for sure,” Blaney said of reaching the championship round. “Even coming in like we did to the Playoffs, like not having a lot of Playoff points, stuff like that, then out-performing people, right? Just doing a good job, executing really well. That’s all you can ask for.
“All you want is a shot at a championship. You get your shot when the Playoffs start, if you make them, okay, you have a shot. But then your real shot is if you get to Phoenix, right? It’s just nice to have an opportunity to actually race for a championship. Hopefully, we can maximize the weekend. We’ll just see. I’m excited for it. It’s going to be fun.”
Follow Lee Spencer on X | Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
