DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Blaney delivered team owner Roger Penske his fourth NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2023.
The best way to follow that would be Blaney’s first Daytona 500 win just one month after Penske won his second Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The third-generation racer intends to do that in Sunday’s 66th Daytona 500.
“That’s the dream deal,” Blaney said. “You win the championship and then turn right around and win the 500. The last person to do it was Dale Jarrett in 2000 I think someone said, so it’s about time someone maybe does it again.
“We’ll see.”
Blaney arrived at Daytona Int’l Speedway with the look of confidence and a certain amount of swagger. That’s what winning a NASCAR Cup Series championship with do for a driver.
The next step is to use that to win the biggest race of the NASCAR season.
“You just try to learn from experiences from previous races here and figure out, ‘Hey, what did we do well to put us in a spot to win? And what decisions did I make that kind of kept us out of victory lane?’” Blaney explained. “And you just hope to find yourself in those spots again and try to make the right decision, so we’ll see. You just try to be rolling at the end of it and hopefully you’re there, but I’m excited for it.
“It should be great and try to add the 500 onto RP’s Rolex 24 that he got not too long ago here.”
Penske has won the Daytona 500 three times including Ryan Newman in 2008, Joey Logano in 2015 and Austin Cindric in 2022.
Blaney drove to victory in the 2021 Coke Zero 400. His best Daytona 500 finishes are a pair of seconds in the 2017 and 2020 Daytona 500s.
The son of former Cup Series racer Dave Blaney remembers those more than his lone Daytona win.
“I remember every little detail of how you run second,” Blaney said. “Drivers obviously remember it. You remember the ones you lose.
“The ones that sting I feel like you remember those even more. You remember every little detail about them, so, yeah, we’ve run second here twice.
“I feel like I’ve had a great shot to win it maybe two or three other times and it just hasn’t played out. I try to take those as things like running second or close to winning this thing and not doing it, but I always try to take things from it as, ‘OK, we did a really good job of putting ourselves in a spot to win this race. What can I do and what can we do as a team to try to change the outcome of that?’”
Race car drivers have great memories, which is fairly amazing considering the violent nature of driving a speeding race machine at its limits, lap after lap against competition just inches apart from potential mayhem.
“We ran second in 2017 to Kurt Busch and that was a weird one,” Blaney recalled. “I couldn’t have done anything different.
“We got strung out. Guys were running out of gas. I couldn’t get there.
“But then I look at 2020 when we ran second and me, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman were racing. Yeah, I mean I look back and it’s easy to Monday Morning Quarterback the thing and be like, ‘We’ll just make a different move.’ It’s hard to make those decisions in that moment.
“You’re trying to process a million thoughts in a millisecond, and you have no time to think about them, process them, apply them. You’re doing it off of action and sometimes you make the wrong choice.”
Blaney made the wrong decision in 2020, made contact with Newman’s race-leading car, sending it into a terrifying airborne crash that sent the driver to the hospital.
It was a miracle that Newman survived and would later return to racing.
“Obviously, I would have liked to do something different in 2020,” Blaney explained. “I would have liked to choose a different lane.
“And then in 2022 I had a great shot to win it pushing Austin Cindric and, yeah, it was the same thing. I thought I waited until the correct moment to make sure one of us won the race, but I just wish I would have made a different move.
“Like I said, it’s easy to look back on those things now and you never know how that leader is going to react. You never know where they’re going to go. You’re guessing as well as them of guessing where you’re going, so you just look at those little things and sometimes I try not to get too bent out of shape about them. I try to just learn from them like, ‘Alright, maybe if you’re in this spot again, do something different and then move on.’
“I try to not let it eat at me, those tough ones, so just those little things and gathering experience,” Blaney continued. “Or, maybe you’re known for a certain move and maybe you do something different. You try to keep people guessing, so you’re just always trying to change up things and those close ones it’s easy to say what you should have changed up, but you can’t change them up at that race, you just try to do them for the future.”
Looking At This Weekend
Blaney is processing that data as he prepares for his 10th Daytona 500. He intends to put that data to future use, perhaps as early as Sunday’s 66th Daytona 500.
“Someone told me that this is my 10th Daytona 500, which is crazy,” Blaney said. “I’ve been lucky to have some good runs in it, so you just try to get all that stuff that you’ve learned and try to change it.
“You do all that stuff, and you could get wadded up on lap two and it goes for nothing, but you just try to take all the info and experience that you can and, hopefully, you’re in a spot to where you can use it.
“That’s all you ask for is a chance to use this stuff that you’ve learned and apply it, and that’s the biggest thing. Hopefully, we can try to get it done, so we’ll see.”
Blaney is the champion and has enjoyed the accolades that come with the biggest accomplishment of his racing career during the offseason.
But that is in the past as 2024 officially begins at Daytona.
“I didn’t really have a different outlook on this place after winning the championship,” he admitted. “This place is special by itself, and I think the only thing that changed is the confidence level and, like I said, you don’t ever want to be cocky. It’s having belief in yourself.
“Listen, I’ve never been a very confident human being, so any little bits of confidence I can grab and apply to myself is really good and it helps me personally and internally, so I think that is the biggest thing is like when the garage opens today, I think that’s what everyone on the 12 group is going to have of everyone seeing them and having the number one garage stall is great and that confidence for them is great to start off this week, but, as far as this place goes, it’s special in itself.
“Championship or not, you understand the meaning behind this place. I’ve been in awe of this place every time I drive through the tunnel ever since I was born.
“It hasn’t changed 30 years later.”