95 Facts About Ryan Blaney

Ryan Michael Blaney was born on December 31,1993 and is an American professional stock car racing driver.

Ryan Blaney competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske.

Ryan Blaney is the son of former NASCAR driver Dave Blaney and the grandson of modified dirt track racer Lou Blaney.

Ryan Blaney won the Concord Speedway Young Lions Winter Heat Points Championship in Bandoleros.

At age 12, Ryan Blaney debuted in late model racing at Orange County Speedway, while in 2009, at age 15, 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.

Ryan Blaney competed in the Champion Racing Association -sanctioned Southern Six Pack series, winning the series championship for 2010.

For 2012, Ryan Blaney returned to the PASS Super Late Model Series in the Carswell Motorsports No 98 car.

In July 2012, Ryan 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.

Ryan Blaney 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.

Ryan 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 18 years, eight months, and 15 days.

Ryan 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.

Ryan 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.

Ryan Blaney was the only race winner in the 2013 Nationwide season to not have any Sprint Cup experience.

In January 2014, Ryan Blaney announced that in addition to a full Camping World Truck Series schedule with BKR, he would be running 15 Nationwide Series and two Sprint Cup Series races for Team Penske during the year.

Ryan Blaney drove the No 29 truck full-time for Brad Keselowski Racing.

Ryan Blaney had many Top 10 but failed to win in the spring.

Ryan 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, Ryan 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, Ryan Blaney began his Xfinity Series schedule in Las Vegas in the Boyd Gaming 300.

Ryan Blaney finished second to Dillon by a three-car-length winning difference.

Ryan Blaney nearly won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Xfinity race, finishing second to Kyle Busch after being passed on the final lap.

Ryan Blaney won at Iowa and nearly won at Road America in his debut on the track.

Ryan Blaney got his second top 10 of his career in the Sprint Cup at Kansas for the Hollywood Casino 400 finishing seventh.

In January 2014, it was announced that Team Penske was going to re-open a third car, the No 12, for Ryan Blaney to make two starts in during the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

Ryan Blaney made his debut at Kansas Speedway, finishing 27th.

Ryan Blaney's second start came at Talladega in the fall, where he notched a 22nd-place finish.

Ryan Blaney performed well, picking up his first Top 10 at Talladega in the GEICO 500, running as high as second and finishing fourth.

Ryan Blaney picked up a seventh-place finish in the fall at Kansas and ended the year with 15 starts in total.

Ryan Blaney began competing full-time in the Cup Series in 2016 with the Wood Brothers despite the team being excluded from NASCAR's new Charter system implemented before the 2016 Cup Series season.

Ryan Blaney got his third Top 10 of his career at Las Vegas, finishing 6th.

Ryan Blaney picked up more top tens at Phoenix, Talladega, Dover, and Pocono for a successful first half of the season with his best finish being a fifth at Kansas.

At Chicagoland, Ryan Blaney ran well all day and for the final restart, he gambled and stayed out, and got the race lead.

Ryan Blaney put up a fight for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award, but lost to Chase Elliott.

Ryan Blaney then passed Harvick early in the race to lead the next 148 laps and win the first two stages.

At Kansas, Ryan Blaney won his first career Cup Series pole.

On July 26, Ryan Blaney announced he would move to Team Penske's new No 12 car for the 2018 season.

Ryan Blaney then scored consecutive top-ten finishes at Martinsville and Texas, but despite winning the pole for the Round of 8 finale at Phoenix, he faded outside of the top ten by the end of stage one.

Ryan Blaney rebounded to secure eighth by the end of stage two, but could not improve his standing on the track, ultimately finishing the race in 17th and being eliminated from the playoffs.

Ryan Blaney brought over personal sponsorship from BodyArmor sports drink.

Ryan Blaney won his Can-Am Duel and was a favorite to win the Daytona 500.

Ryan Blaney led the most laps on the day, spending 114 laps, over half the race, leading the pack.

Ryan Blaney finished seventh after contact with Kurt Busch late in the race forced him to pit for repairs.

Ryan Blaney won the pole at Las Vegas, won a stage at Martinsville, and appeared to have the car to beat early on at Bristol, but was involved in a large crash near the end of stage one.

Ryan Blaney fell short at Kansas and blew an engine in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.

Ryan Blaney won another pole at Pocono and finished in the top ten; He did the same the following week at Michigan.

Ryan Blaney ran solidly at Las Vegas and Richmond, putting him barely over the cutoff line going into the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Roval.

Ryan Blaney passed both to score his first win of the season and his first win with Team Penske.

Ryan Blaney remained consistent within the top 10 in points in 2019.

At the Charlotte Roval, Ryan Blaney finished eighth to advance to the Round of 12.

Ryan Blaney lost the race to Denny Hamlin in the second-closest finish in Daytona 500 history.

Ryan Blaney later stated that the incident had taken a tough toll on him mentally, and that speaking with Newman on the phone after his release from the hospital was a key factor to helping him become at peace with it.

Ryan Blaney crashed out at Phoenix, and have mediocre runs at both Darlington races before two back-to-back third places in the doubleheader races at Charlotte paved the way for a consistent streak.

Ryan Blaney dominated early at Bristol, leading 60 laps, before a wreck with Ty Dillon resulted in a last place finish.

Ryan Blaney had transmission issues at Kentucky, forcing him to drive through the turns one-handed because his car kept jumping out of fourth gear.

Ryan Blaney led the most laps at Texas and finished fourth at Michigan, putting up a strong coalition of runs going into the playoffs.

Ryan Blaney made the playoffs with his win at Talladega, but was eliminated in the Round of 16 due to mediocre finishes at Richmond and the Bristol Night Race.

Ryan Blaney put up a strong fight at the end of the season despite his elimination, with three top-fives and two-top tens in the last five races of the season, with a highest of second at Martinsville.

Ryan Blaney went into the 2021 Cup playoffs as the second-seeded driver with three wins on the season behind Kyle Larson, who had five wins.

Ryan Blaney made it to the Round of 8 before being eliminated after Martinsville.

Ryan Blaney finished the season seventh in the points standings.

Ryan Blaney started the 2022 season with a fourth-place finish at the 2022 Daytona 500.

Ryan Blaney was eliminated following the Round of 8 after finishing third at Martinsville.

Ryan Blaney started the 2023 season with an eighth-place finish at the 2023 Daytona 500 despite getting caught in a wreck early.

Ryan Blaney found himself within striking distance of the win at Phoenix a few weeks later but finished second after a late restart.

Ryan Blaney led the most laps at the GEICO 500 at Talladega, but finished second to Kyle Busch on an overtime restart after a bad block from Bubba Wallace.

Ryan Blaney finally broke his 59-race drought by winning the 2023 Coca-Cola 600, doing such in a dominating fashion by leading the most laps and winning a stage.

Ryan Blaney later went on to say that he felt it was the hardest impact he has felt in his entire racing career.

Ryan Blaney urged NASCAR to install a SAFER barrier on the wall that he impacted, a sentiment that was echoed by NASCAR's Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer.

Two weeks later at Atlanta, Ryan Blaney won stage one and finished second in stage two.

Ryan Blaney was one of several drivers attempting to stay in the lead until a caution for rain came out, but wound up finishing ninth.

Ryan Blaney was caught up in an accident with 12 laps to go at Texas, putting his hopes of advancing to the Round of 8 in jeopardy.

Ryan Blaney won his way into the next round at Talladega, in a photo finish with Kevin Harvick, the margin of victory being 0.012 seconds.

Ryan Blaney finished sixth at Las Vegas, but was disqualified after post-race inspection discovered a left-front damper that did not meet specifications; as a result, Blaney dropped to last-place and the bottom of the Round of 8 cutoff line.

Ryan Blaney traded the lead back and forth with Denny Hamlin for most of the race, but won stage two and held off a late-charging Aric Almirola to get his third win of the season and lock himself into the Championship 4.

Ryan Blaney ran in the top ten for the majority of the race, but an early brake failure for Bell allowed Ryan Blaney to get a big run on the Hendrick teammates.

On Lap 277, Ryan Blaney slammed into the rear end of leader Ross Chastain to go three wide for the race lead, but a spin by Kyle Busch bunched up the field for a final restart with 30 laps to go.

Larson and Ryan Blaney ran side-by-side, dueling for position for nearly eleven laps before Ryan Blaney passed Larson for second place with 20 laps to go.

Ryan Blaney hung on to finish second, clinching the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

Ryan Blaney started the 2024 season with a 30th-place DNF at the Daytona 500.

Ryan Blaney fell short of a victory at Gateway after running out of fuel on the last lap; his teammate Austin Cindric ended up winning the race.

Ryan Blaney ran up front for the bulk of the season finale race at Phoenix, though would be unable to outrun his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, who would go on to win the 2024 Cup Series Championship.

Ryan Blaney started out the season with a 7th place finish in the Daytona 500, rebounding from being involved in a wreck caused by Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Penske teammate Joey Logano.

At the beginning of the 2017 season, Ryan Blaney began a NASCAR-supported podcast featuring former Miss Sprint Cup and current Motor Racing Network personality Kim Coon and NASCAR.

In June 2017, Ryan Blaney became a member of Fox NASCAR Cup driver-only broadcast team for the Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway, working as a pit reporter alongside Erik Jones and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Ryan Blaney interviewed race-winner Brad Keselowski; the next day, the roles were reversed as he won his first Cup race with Keselowski, still in his firesuit, interviewing him.

The driver-only broadcast format returned for the 2018 Xfinity race at Talladega Superspeedway as Ryan Blaney returned to his pit duties.

Since 2021, Ryan Blaney has served as a commentator in the booth for the driver-only broadcast, as well as a rotating driver analyst in the booth for regular Xfinity and ARCA Menard Series broadcasts.

That same year Ryan Blaney had a cameo appearance as a delivery boy in the film Logan Lucky.

In 2018, Ryan Blaney guest-starred in the TV show Taken in season 2 episode 12 "Imperium", as Special Agent Nathan Wood; the episode aired on April 20,2018.

In 2019, Ryan Blaney had a cameo appearance as himself in the Netflix's television series The Crew alongside Austin Dillon and Cole Custer.

In 2021, Ryan Blaney was one of three drivers featured as cover stars for the NASCAR 21: Ignition video game.

Ryan Blaney was a featured driver in the 2022 USA Network series Race for the Championship, following the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, as well as the 2024 Netflix documentary series NASCAR: Full Speed, which followed the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Ryan Blaney is the only son and middle child of Lisa and Dave Ryan Blaney, with two sisters, Emma and Erin.

Ryan Blaney is of Irish descent and is close friends with fellow drivers Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, and Chase Elliott.

Season still in progress Ineligible for series points In 2012 Ryan Blaney switched from Nationwide to Truck Series points at Atlanta Motor Speedway in August.