"My dad chewed my ass out": Ryan Blaney comes clean on his early racing education with aggressive driving

Ryan Blaney recently revealed what he thinks is the line between aggressive and clean driving in NASCAR. In the light of Carson Hocevar's incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Nashville, Blaney also spoke about whether Hocevar getting attention is good for the sport.

The 2023 Cup champion claimed that everyone's line is different, and he can't speak for other drivers. Blaney mentioned how he was raised by his father, who is also a racecar driver, and learned the dos and don'ts of racing at a young age.

"I’ve been chewed out a lot when I was younger for doing the wrong thing – at being overly aggressive and costing somebody else. My dad chewed my ass out when I did that. I did it a few times in late models when I was like 13 and he said it right. He set the line. He said, ‘This is wrong. You do not race this way. This is just how it is.’ It was one of those situations where I’m racing someone hard and I made a mistake. I slipped up and I spun him out. It wasn’t intentional, but even those mistakes dad would really make me clean up right away," Blaney revealed.

He claimed that in his mind, hard racing is fantastic and with everyone racing hard, contact is a big possibility. But it becomes an issue when it happens again and again as per Ryan Blaney. He claimed that when a driver doesn't learn from their mistakes then they lose the benefit of the doubt from their peers.

Speaking about Carson Hocevar, the #12 driver claimed the Spire driver is still in the early stages of his career. Like all young drivers, Hocevar is aggressive.

Ryan Blaney said he rates Hocevar very highly, adding that he doesn't have to change his ways because that is what got him to this level in NASCAR.

Ryan Blaney believes the hype around NASCAR's in-season tournament is still in the backseat.

During his media availabillity session at Michigan, Ryan Blaney claimed NASCAR's in-season tournament can generate big buzz within the drivers. It's worth mentioning that last season, the in-season tournament was announced, the winner of which would take home one million dollars.

Blaney claimed that NASCAR having such a tournament in the middle of the year is 'a unique thing.' He elaborated:

"It’s definitely gonna be something on people’s minds starting this week. The qualifiers are this week and it goes for three weeks, and then we get going. I think it’s in the back of people’s minds. I wasn’t sitting around this week like, ‘It’s in-season tournament time.’ You just try to run the best you can and then when I think you get into that five-week stretch of the tournament, you’re gonna be aware of who you’re racing like, ‘Who am I up against this week?’ You’re definitely gonna be aware of that because there is a lot of money and pride if you win the thing."

Ryan Blaney likened the in-season tournament to a five-week All-Star race. He mentioned that as a drive, one can think of taking the easy route, which would be to win all five races. But as for teams jeopardising their races for this, Blaney claimed it wouldn't go that far.

Having said that, Ryan Blaney added that the in-season tournament is something the drivers will be thinking about for the five weeks.