Ryan Blaney
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Blaney earned a victory and raced his way into the NCS Playoffs in NASCAR's premier series for the fourth consecutive season in 2020. He produced another thrilling victory at Talladega Superspeedway in June which made him the first driver since 2007 to win back-to-back races at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Blaney tied a career-high in top-five finishes (11) and surpassed his most laps led in a season (668) during a productive 2020 campaign.
The native of High Point, N.C. and third-generation driver returns to the No. 12 team this season racing the Menards/Advance Auto Parts/DEX Imaging/BODYARMOR Ford Mustang. Blaney will begin his second season working with experienced series crew chief Todd Gordon and race engineer Miles Stanley, both of whom won the 2018 NCS championship in 2018 with Team Penske and driver Joey Logano.
Blaney first joined Team Penske as a talented but raw 18-year-old racer, competing in select NASCAR Xfinity Series races for the team in 2012. He earned his first victory for Team Penske with an NXS win at Kentucky in 2013 and Blaney has produced a combined nine wins and seven poles for the team over the last eight seasons.
In 2015, Blaney firmly established himself as one of NASCAR's rising stars on the strength of 13 starts in the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang for Team Penske. He scored wins at Iowa and Kentucky and posted nine top-five finishes to help the No. 22 team win its third consecutive NXS owner title for Team Penske.
Blaney also earned an opportunity to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2015. He made 16 NCS starts for Wood Brothers Racing, Team Penske's technical alliance partner. Blaney competed in his first full NASCAR Cup Series season in 2016, as he recorded three top-five and nine top-10 finishes for Wood Brothers Racing to finish 20th in the final series point standings. He also posted four top-five and six top-10 results across eight NXS starts for Team Penske.
In 2017, Blaney delivered NASCAR's longest-running team its best season finish since 1995, when he captured his first career NCS victory and the 99th all-time win for Wood Brothers Racing over their nearly 70 years of NASCAR competition with a memorable triumph at Pocono Raceway. Blaney and the No. 21 Ford team raced their way into the Playoffs with a strong regular season and advanced to the Round of 8 before eventually finishing ninth in the driver standings. Blaney competed in 13 NXS races for Team Penske in 2017 and he earned two wins to help secure the team's fourth series owner championship.
For the first time in eight years, Team Penske expanded to a three-car NCS program in 2018 as Blaney transitioned back to the team to compete alongside Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. Blaney returned to Victory Lane as the No. 12 Ford team won the inaugural Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The win allowed Blaney to advance to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Playoffs and he eventually finished 10th in the final championship standings.
In 2019, Blaney earned a victory in NASCAR's premier series for the third consecutive season and he also earned an NCS Playoffs berth for the third straight season. He produced a thrilling victory at Talladega Superspeedway in October that propelled him into the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Playoffs. As he finished a career-best seventh in the final championship standings, Blaney recorded career-highs in top-five (11) and top-10 (18) finishes.
Blaney has a wide variety of interests outside of the racetrack. His hobbies include anything related to Star Wars, basketball, Ohio State football, music and spending time with his dog Sturgill. He also co-hosted the popular The Glass Case of Emotion podcast on NASCAR.com.
Blaney Key Accomplishments