“Thanks a f-—lot, d———.” That was the unfiltered gem blaring over Ryan Blaney’s team radio after his dramatic crash at Sonoma last weekend. Now, with a clear head and some space between the wreck and his emotions, the 2023 Cup Series champion has responded, and he’s got a lot more to say than just some team radio zingers.
Amid fans’ disappointment with him for being someone who just talks but doesn’t follow through, Ryan Blaney has responded in a mature manner.
Ryan Blaney reveals why he doesn’t take revenge on-track
On lap 61 at Sonoma Raceway, Blaney was sitting comfortably in the top five when he tangled with Chris Buescher exiting turn one. The two made contact; Chris came down hard and clipped Blaney in the right rear. Ryan shot off the pavement straight into the grass and slammed the tire wall, wrecking his day and ultimately relegating him to a 36th-place finish.
After being cleared from the care center, Ryan Blaney said it wasn’t a malicious move. Chris had overdrive on turn one, and he felt like a victim caught in the fallout. As an innocent bystander, the Penske driver noted that, “I don’t think he intentionally meant to do it. I was the innocent bystander.”
He added that he had no room left once he hit the apron, and it was literally race over. And that stung, too. Ryan Blaney’s car had the pace for a top five that day. A third, fourth, or even fifth-place car, as he mentioned. Up until lap 61, he was running strong and had the momentum rolling in. This wasn’t a one-off. Blaney admitted that it’s become rote this year. Being caught up in someone else’s mess, as he knows, with similar incidents crippling his runs at Atlanta and others. And after a 36th-place finish at Sonoma, his spot in the playoffs is still intact, but the frustration is building.
In a Dover pre-race conversation, Ryan Blaney said that he has never been one to settle scores with wrecking in return. He says, “A lot of times, yeah, it’s the ‘I’m going to get back to that guy,’ yada yada—and I don’t do it. And you know, it’s different—getting back to a guy. You can do it in different ways. Like the next time you’re around that person, yeah, you might take a little more space. I think a lot of people see it as, ‘Oh, he’s just going to wreck him.’ It’s like, well, no—there are very two different lines when it comes to that.”
The Team Penske driver is doing quite well for himself this year. After a solid start, including a top 10 and Daytona 500 and multiple top five finishes, he nearly broke through at Nashville Speedway last month, driving his No. 12 Ford to victory Lane in the Cracker Barrel 400. Blaney led a race-best 139 laps during a dominant 103-lap green flag stretch, crossing the line 2.83 seconds ahead of Carson Hocevar.
He goes on to add, “And I definitely have not been afraid of taking a ton of space to the person I’ve had a run-in with. But I’m not going to go out and wreck somebody. That’s just not who I am. I feel like it’s a lot of who people are, and I’m just not a fan of it. I just don’t see it. I just don’t like it.”
The Nashville celebration included climbing on the roof and sprinting into the grandstand to celebrate with the fans, a joyful playoff after five frustrating DNFs earlier in the season. And now, with Sonoma behind him, the fans did not go easy. However, Dover looks bright for Ryan Blaney and his teammate Joey Logano.
Joey Logano opens up about how he has never missed a race in his career
Joey Logano may not be throwing a party for his 600th NASCAR Cup Series start this weekend, but he does recognize the significance of the milestone. What stands out most to Logano is the longevity it takes to get there. Over a 16-year career, still going, he has driven for just two owners, Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske. His long-term relationship with Shell, his primary sponsor for the past 13 years, is another point of pride, reflecting his appreciation for consistency and loyalty.
Joey made his first NASCAR Cup Series start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the fall of 2008, and since 2009, he has been a full-time driver in the NASCAR top series and hasn’t missed a race since. At the eve of the Dover race, the No. 22 driver goes on to say, “Anyone who can make a career out of professional sports and be at the top level for 16 years is pretty impressive. I think that’s pretty cool, so I take some pride in that. I think that’s neat (and) something I’m proud of.”
In 2008, he made two more starts that year before visually stepping in as Tony Stewart’s replacement at Joe Gibbs Racing the following year. The three-time Cup Series champion, with a shrug and a laugh, said, “I’m going to keep going. There have been weekends I probably should have taken off, but I didn’t. You think about all the things in life that have happened, too, where things have timed out pretty well, whether it’s the birth of your children or those type of things. I never got put into that ‘What do I do?’ I’ve always been in a position where I’ve been able to be OK up until this point. Proud of that.”
Now that is what we call commitment.
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