Ryan Blaney is entering his sixth full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series and third with Team Penske. He started just twice in 2014 before joining Wood Brothers Racing for 16 events the following season, becoming the teamâs full-time driver for the next two years. WBR is the oldest continuously operating NASCAR Cup Series team.
Â
Blaneyâs racing career began in quarter midgets, winning more than one hundred races in three classes along with multiple class and series titles. In Bandoleros, he was a multiple-time winner at Concord Motorsports Park and the Young Guns Winter Heat champion.
By 2007, he won the Legends Car Young Lions Winter and Summer Shootout championships at Charlotte Motor Speedway and more than 25 victories in Legends Cars. He made his debut in late models the following season, scoring four top-tens in six starts. Blaney won the CRA Southern Six-Pack championship for late models in 2010 and was second in the PASS South championship.
In 2017, Blaney gave the Wood Brothers their first win since 2011 when Trevor Bayne shocked the world by winning the Daytona 500. In the Axalta Presents the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway, he held off Kevin Harvick for his first career Cup victory.
The son of former NASCAR driver Dave Blaney, he is also the grandson of modified dirt track legend Lou Blaney. That background had served him well when he got the call from Roger Penske in 2018 to take over the No. 12 Mustang. He has a win in four straight years, earning him a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Blaney had a respectable season in 2020 with 11 top-fives and 17 top-tens but finished strong with six top-tens in the last seven events, including a runner-up in the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. He has won multiple times in each of the top NASCAR touring seriesâ.
In 2013, he claimed the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Rookie of the year, scoring his first career victory at Iowa in his just third outing. The following year he had wins in both the Trucks and Xfinity Seriesâ. He would be the Truck Series championship runner-up that year while claiming the most popular driver in a fan vote. He had just three starts in Xfinity and had a top-ten in each, including his win in Kentucky.
2010 CRA Southern Six-Pack Champion
2011 PASS Champion
2018 Can-Am Duel Winner
2020 GEICO 500 Winner
2013 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year
2014 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Most Popular Driver
Ryan Michael Blaney was born on Dec. 31, 1993 (now 27), in Hartford, Ohio, and currently lives in Huntersville, NC. He is not married. Blaneyâs hobbies are basketball, Star Wars, and the Ryan Blaney Family Foundation, established in 2018. It supports causes that have directly impacted the Blaney family.
