Ryan Blaney
Ryan Michael Blaney is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske.
A third-generation racecar driver, Blaney is the son of former NASCAR Cup Series driver Dave Blaney and the grandson of modified dirt track racer Lou Blaney. Growing up, Blaney had a very successful early racing career in quarter midget racing, Bandolero racing, and late model racing, which included Blaney winning his first quarter midget race at the age of nine, and in 2009 at the age of fifteen, competing in the Pro All Star Series late model division, finishing second in the final points standings while also winning the series' Rookie of the Year award.
Blaney began his NASCAR career, driving in select few races in both the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series in 2011-2012 for Tommy Baldwin Racing and Penske Racing. In his first full time NASCAR season in the Truck Series in 2013 driving for Brad Keselowski Racing, Blaney finished 6th in points while also winning the Rookie of the Year Award. The following year, Blaney finished second in the final point standings, narrowly losing the Truck Series title to Matt Crafton by twenty-points. Blaney made his Cup Series debut in 2014 driving a few select races for Penske. He signed with Wood Brothers Racing in 2015 driving a limited-schedule in the famed No. 21 car, and remained with the Wood Brothers for an additional two years, driving his first full-time Cup Series schedule from 2016–2017. In 2017, Blaney captured his first career Cup Series win at Pocono Raceway and finishing ninth in the final point-standings.
In 2018, Blaney joined Team Penske full-time driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Since joining Penske, Blaney has never finished outside the top-ten in the final championship standings in the Cup Series, which includes Blaney winning the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship, and nearly winning back-to-back titles the following year in 2024, when he finished second in the final point standings to his Penske racing teammate Joey Logano. Blaney is the winner of the 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race, and has currently amassed a total of 17 Cup Series victories, including a crown jewel victory in the 2023 Coca-Cola 600.
Racing career
Early racing career
A third-generation racer and son of then-Cup Series driver Dave Blaney, Blaney started his racing career in quarter midget racing, winning his first race at the age of nine; he also competed, and won, in Bandolero cars at a young age. Moving up to Legends cars at the age of twelve, Blaney won the Lowe's Motor Speedway Summer Shootout and the Young Lions Winter Heat Points Championship, as well as three divisions of the Carolina Fall Nationals in quarter midgets. He also won the Concord Speedway Young Lions Winter Heat Points Championship in Bandoleros.At the age of twelve, Blaney debuted in late model racing at Orange County Speedway, while in 2009, at the age of fifteen, he began competing in the Pro All Stars Series -sanctioned South Super Late Model Series, finishing second in points and winning the series' Rookie of the Year award; he finished third in the PASS national points as well. In addition, he won the Eastern Grand Nationals in Huntsville, Alabama and the Gasoline Alley National Championship quarter midget event in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Continuing to compete in the PASS South Super Late Model Series in 2010, Blaney scored his first career win in the series at Dillon Motor Speedway, adding wins at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and Newport Speedway on his way to a second consecutive second-place finish in the PASS South championship standings. Blaney also competed in the Champion Racing Association -sanctioned Southern Six Pack series, winning the series championship for 2010.
Returning to the PASS South Super Late Model Series in 2011, Blaney won two races in the series, at Dillon Motor Speedway and Ace Speedway, winning the series championship.
For 2012, Blaney returned to the PASS Super Late Model Series in the Carswell Motorsports No. 98 car.
NASCAR
K&N Pro Series and ARCA (2011–2013)
In 2011, Blaney made his debuts in the ARCA Racing Series and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and East in 2011, scoring top ten finishes in every start in the three series; he won his first career NASCAR race in the K&N Pro Series West season finale at Phoenix International Raceway winning by over two seconds in his only series start.For 2012, Blaney, who had won praise from Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick for his driving skills, returned to the K&N Pro Series East, running six races for family-owned DB Racing, driving the No. 10 car.
Xfinity and Trucks (2012–2015)
In addition, Blaney signed with Tommy Baldwin Racing to compete in six NASCAR Nationwide Series races, driving the No. 36 SealWrap-sponsored Chevrolet, starting at Richmond International Raceway in April. Blaney qualified in the top ten in his debut at Richmond International Raceway, and finished seventh in the race.In July 2012, Blaney announced that he had signed a contract to drive for Team Penske a minimum of three races in the 2012 Nationwide Series season, starting at Iowa Speedway in August. He also ran selected races in the Camping World Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing, finishing sixth in his debut in the series at Bristol Motor Speedway. Blaney won his first career Truck Series race on September 15, 2012, at Iowa Speedway; at the time, he was the youngest winner in Truck Series history at eighteen years, eight months, and fifteen days. The previous record was twenty years and eighteen days set by Kyle Busch in 2005.Blaney returned to the Camping World Truck Series in 2013, driving the full schedule for Brad Keselowski Racing and competing for the series' Rookie of the Year award. Blaney won his first career pole in the series at Kentucky Speedway in June, then won his second career Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway in August. Blaney also competed in the Nationwide Series at Iowa Speedway in June, substituting for Joey Logano after a rainout created a schedule conflict; Blaney finished ninth in the event. Blaney competed in a second Nationwide Series race in 2013, at Kentucky Speedway on September 21, and led 96 of the race's 200 laps to win his first career race in the series, beating Austin Dillon and Matt Crafton. Blaney was the only race winner in the 2013 Nationwide season to not have any Sprint Cup experience.
In January 2014, Blaney announced that in addition to a full Camping World Truck Series schedule with BKR, he would be running fifteen Nationwide Series and two Sprint Cup Series races for Team Penske during the year.
Blaney drove the No. 29 truck full-time for Brad Keselowski Racing. He had many Top 10 but failed to win in the spring. However, his year's turning point was at Dover in late May 2014, when he came up short to Kyle Busch who beat him by 0.5 seconds for the win. After the race, Blaney was one of the drivers who said that because Kyle was winning a lot in the truck series, the Cup series drivers should no longer race in any division besides the Cup Series.
Blaney won his second career Nationwide race in August 2014 at Bristol Motor Speedway, beating Kyle Busch in a green-white-checkered finish. The next week, Blaney won his first Truck race of 2014 spectacularly at Ron Fellows' own Canadian Tire Motorsports Park raceway, edging German Quiroga by 0.49 seconds in a photo-finish.
In 2015, Blaney began his Xfinity Series schedule in Las Vegas in the Boyd Gaming 300. After leading two laps, he was briefly in contention for the win. After spinning out fellow driver Erik Jones late in the race, Blaney restarted the final restart in eighth place. Despite this, he drove from eighth to second in the final 21 laps. Though he caught up to race leader Austin Dillon with three laps to go, Blaney was unable to force his way by Dillon. Blaney finished second to Dillon by a three-car-length winning difference. He nearly won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Xfinity race, finishing second to Kyle Busch after being passed on the final lap. He won at Iowa and nearly won at Road America in his debut on the track. He again won at the Kentucky standalone race in September beating Ty Dillon on a late-race restart. Blaney got his second top-ten of his career in the Sprint Cup at Kansas for the Hollywood Casino 400 finishing seventh.