CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ryan Blaney brings the confidence of a NASCAR Cup Series Champion into this year’s playoff run.
The Team Penske driver stormed to a title in 2023 as the No. 12 seed, fitting for the driver of the No. 12 Ford. But there are fewer questions about the capabilities of him and his team entering the 2024 postseason, set to kick off Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
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His championship charge a season ago included wins at Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway along the way, with finishes of sixth, second, first and second lining the route to the Bill France Cup. But that all followed a lackluster regular season in which Blaney’s only victory came in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, for his last top-five finish before his Talladega triumph in the Round of 12.
Blaney’s 2024 campaign has been markedly more impressive, with wins at Iowa Speedway and Pocono Raceway for seven top fives and 11 top 10s in 26 races, his top-five and wins total each just one tally short of his 2023 numbers with 10 races still to run this year.
“I said a couple months ago I thought our group was in a great spot,” Blaney said Wednesday at Cup Series Playoffs Media Day. “Mentally, performance-wise, whether that’s on pit road or on the race track, I feel like we’re really good. I thought at this time last year, we were kind of scrounging to figure out how figure out how we were going to perform how we need to because we were off a little bit. And this year, I think we’re in a much better spot. So, hopefully, we can continue to bring that same pace and continue to learn on the pace that we’ve been bringing the last few months.
“But yeah, this group is in a way better spot. I think us as a whole too — like us as Team Penske as a whole, we’re in a much better spot as well. So, hopefully, all that means a lot for all three of our cars and the 21 (Harrison Burton) to make a good run at it.”
The team’s mentality is intentional. With the trophy still in the No. 12 group’s clutches, Blaney wants his competition to fear him as a threat to win every week.
“That’s what I’ve told my guys: I want to scare every other team,” he said. “Like, I want you guys to be so good that everyone is nervous about us when we unload. That’s the kind of the mindset that we’ve tried to have because I think that’s a great mindset for everyone on the team to have. Like, you want everybody worrying about you because you can be that dangerous, and I think we definitely are.”
That outward tenacity is not something Blaney prominently displayed prior to his championship run. But with a title in his back pocket, the 30-year-old has proven he can climb the mountain, changing his perspective coming back to the playoffs one year later.
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“I definitely think you’re more confident in trying to get back to Phoenix,” Blaney said. “It’s not as simple as just ‘do what you did last year,’ though. But I feel like once you have that experience and you persevere through the three rounds to get there, I think it just really motivates your team and just gives them a level of confidence of like, hey, we know we can do this. We’ve been there before, and now let’s try to figure out a way to do it again and accept all the challenges that are going to be thrown at you and things like that and use your experience to your advantage. So hopefully, we can bring that same intensity that we did to the playoffs last year again.”
Joey Logano has been teammates with Blaney since 2018. The Blaney he sees today is not the same Blaney he saw a season ago.
“Yeah, he’s a different person — in a good way, not in a bad way,” said Logano, a champion in 2018 and 2022. “It’s not like it like went to his head and became a jackass or anything like that. He’s still a good dude, but you can tell that over the last couple years, he’s become more confident, not only off the race track, but you see it on the race track, where he’s putting whole races together now, and all those type of things, right? That’s why he won the championship last year. He’s able to do all that.
“I mean, that’s part of experience. That’s part of what takes time to learn and do. But, yeah, he’s grown up. Our little Ryan’s all grown up.”