"My rivalry is with my buddies" - When Ryan Blaney reflected on competitive bond with Chase Elliott

Last year, NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney talked about his friendships and rivalries with fellow drivers.

The 2023 Cup Series champion, Blaney currently drives the No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske. When asked about his big rival in NASCAR, Blaney responded by saying (via the Bussin' With The Boys podcast):

"I don't really know. I feel like, like, I don't... I've been lucky. I haven't had anyone I really despise. You'll have kind of run-ins with some guys every now and then, but some guys, they hate each other for years and years. I haven't really been that way."

The 30-year-old shared that his closest rivals are his childhood friends, Chase Eliott and 23XI's Bubba Wallace. Elliott and Blaney are from racing families, their fathers competed in NASCAR during the 1990s.

"I'd say more my rivalry is with my buddies who I grew up racing with. We're all good friends. You know, Chase Elliott and I, Bubba Wallace and I, we grew up together. We started racing together when we were like nine or ten years old," he added.

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

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"I don’t know what it would take to beat him" - Ryan Blaney on Chase Elliott winning NASCAR's Most Popular Driver award for the seventh time

Ryan Blaney completed the 2024 season in second place after Penske teammate Joey Logano, who won the Cup Series Championship at Phoenix. He has three wins and an average finish of 15 this year.

Blaney started with a 30th-place finish at the Daytona 500 and got his first win of the season at Iowa in June and another at Pocono in July. He made it to the Championship 4 after winning at Martinsville.

However, when Chase Elliott was named NASCAR's Most Popular Driver for the seventh year in a row last week, Blaney joked and said:

"Obviously, he has a great fan base that he has built on his own, and fans who loved watching Bill as well, I don’t know what it would take to beat him. Someday I will have to peek my head back in the door and say, ‘Who won most popular driver?’ I will probably be retired by then, too. So I don’t know what it would take to beat him. It would be tough to knock him off that spot. He has a lot of people who really love him."

The Most Popular Driver award is decided by fan votes and Elliott won it with 266,363 votes this year. His father, Bill Elliott, holds the most wins (16) for this award during his NASCAR career.