Ryan Blaney starts 16th in Sunday’s 67th DAYTONA 500 in his No. 12 Team Penske entry. (Photo: Donald Jenney | The Podium Finish)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Blaney has been close to winning the DAYTONA 500 on two occasions before winding up as the bridesmaid. In 2017, he nearly secured a popular victory for the Wood Brothers Racing team while capturing a runner-up in an emotionally charged finish in 2020.
Preparing for his 20th start at “The World Center of Racing” and his 11th bid in “The Great American Race,” Blaney knows it will not be an easy task battling for a victory in the 67th renewal of this race.
“It just kind of depends on what lanes are open. If we all get three-wide, you can’t go anywhere. The track is blocked,” Blaney said during Wednesday’s DAYTONA 500 Media Day. “Here, it is honestly better than Talladega. Here, handling is a little bit more of an issue, so you can actually go to the wall if they’re two-wide, bottom and middle. You can maybe make up a little bit of ground when tires get old, but I feel like they’re just a little bit too draggy.
“They’re kind of like Trucks to where you’re just taking up more track distance, so you need the handling to come into play. But I feel like you can, but then you might be making good progress and then two cars jump up in front of you and now you’re stopped. It’s way better to try to play defense from the first three rows than you are trying to come from the back.”
Superspeedway racing is stock car racing’s version of playing minesweeper. It is anyone’s guess as to how to make the right moves especially with the Next Gen cars utilized since 2022.
Ryan Blaney is a yearly contender for the win in the DAYTONA 500. (Photo: Donald Jenney | The Podium Finish)
”Yeah, for sure, and it’s just the way that the cars are,” he opined. “It’s nothing that anyone is doing, it’s just the product of the car and it’s a little bit more unpredictable. The runs and it’s hard to control the race with these cars. Five years ago, 10 years ago especially, you kind of had an air bubble a little bit.
“It was kind of like a beach ball effect, so the leader could jump between lanes and control lanes, but now there’s none of that and the runs are big, so the leader can’t do that anymore. If they throw big blocks, they’re gonna wreck a lot of people, so it is harder to control. I’d say it is a little bit more unpredictable than is used to be.”
Complacency is not a word used to describe Blaney’s approach in his No. 12 Menards/Peak Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Perhaps one of the greatest intangibles from this Hartford Township, Ohio, native is his ability to thrive with change and embrace challenges that often perplex other competitors.
“Yeah, you’re always changing the way you race. You adapt to the car,” he observed. “You understand what it does different, but now everyone has an idea. ‘Hey, this is how this car races on speedways,’ and you just kind of have to do the best you can with it, so you’re always adapting and trying to find different ways to stand out. That’s the hardest thing because you have 39 other people doing the same thing.”
Sometimes, drivers like Blaney play Monday morning quarterback after making snap decisions on race day. In his case, he does this to learn how to improve and attack better, a proven approach given his win in the 2021 400-miler at Daytona.
“I think it kind of goes year to year,” he began to say. “I look back at some races and it’s like, I never tried to let speedway racing get to me too much, like if you get caught up in someone else’s mess. It’s like, it is what it is. I’ll look at more of the races like, ‘I should have done this different’ or ‘I didn’t make the right decision here.’ I look back to the ‘22 500 and I had a good shot to win that race with Austin and I look back and say, ‘I could have done something a little different maybe.’
“So I just try to lean back on all of those previous experiences and ask, ‘OK, could you have made a better choice? Probably.’ So let’s change it if I’m in that spot again. I just try to learn from them and hopefully I can contend for one soon.”
Ryan Blaney could be the man to beat in the 67th DAYTONA 500. (Photo: Donald Jenney | The Podium Finish)
Despite Blaney pursuing his first win in this crown jewel race, it is safe to say he does not lose sleep with not winning the biggest race in stock car competition. Sure, teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric have hoisted the Harley J. Earl Trophy but Blaney, nonchalantly, would not mind joining this exclusive list.
“I don’t actively feel it. I would sure liked to have won one, so it would be nice if I could join the club, so we’ll see,” he said.
Like other drivers, Blaney grew up around this sport and understands, even with his level headed approach, that this is a special race that his father, Dave, came close to winning on a few occasions.
“Every single guy in here is gonna tell you it means a lot and means the world to them. I guess from my personal view I came up here a lot watching dad run here as a kid,” Blaney recalled. “It was something really neat I was able to experience and experience race day morning and stuff like that, the Fan Zone, the stage with dad.
“That was always pretty neat and then it was kind of surreal when I turned around and I did my first one in 2015. I think it would just mean a lot to me personally to have my family here because dad spent so many years trying to win it and stuff like that, and I’ve spent so many years so having all of that come full circle would be pretty neat.”
