Ryan Blaney Wants His Legacy to Mirror That of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart’s

In 12 years at the Cup level, Ryan Blaney has collected 15 wins and, most importantly, the 2023 championship. His breakthrough didn’t come during his stint in Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21. But since moving to Team Penske in 2018, he has scored 14 victories. And his long-term aim is to leave a mark like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, the legends who inspired his path.

Ahead of the Round of 16 cutoff race at Bristol, Blaney was asked whether he and his peers have now become the backbone of today’s NASCAR. He replied, “I don’t necessarily think I contemplate that too much, but it is funny how you see crops come in like those guys you talked about, Jeff and Tony and Matt and all those guys.

“They were all like the same age and crops of guys coming in, and then after them it was Brad and Kyle and Joey. There wasn’t a ton of them, and then when me and Chase and Bubba and Larson and Byron and Bell it was like, boom, this whole crop of guys within a couple years of each other, so it’s weird how all of that stuff comes and goes.“

Blaney continued, “You never know. Hopefully, 10 years down the road, if I’m still around, you’ve got somebody who feels that way about me like I felt about Jeff and Tony and that stuff. That’s the special part to me.”

He explained that it’s about how drivers inspire kids, whether through the way they handle the wheel or the way they carry themselves off the track, making them larger than life, and he intends to do that for younger generations just as the previous NASCAR drivers did.

The No. 12 Team Penske driver admitted he idolized Gordon and Stewart, remembering how surreal it felt standing on the driver intro stage, thinking, “These guys are unbelievable.”

Blaney laughed at how old it must have made them feel when he came along, adding that he expects the same when he hits 40. To him, that cycle is part of the sport’s charm.

Beyond that, he said, racing is all he focuses on. He doesn’t think about a Hall of Fame nod down the line. In Blaney’s words, “If it happens, it happens.” He knows the road ahead is long, so he’ll take it as it comes.

What he does hope, though, is to become the kind of figure future racers look up to, just as he once did with the icons who came before him.

About the author

Neha Dwivedi

Neha Dwivedi is an experienced NASCAR Journalist at The SportsRush, having penned over 5500 articles on the sport to date. She was a seasoned writer long before she got into the world of NASCAR. Although she loves to see Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch win the races, she equally supports the emerging talents in the CARS Late Model and ARCA Menards Series.. For her work in NASCAR she has earned accolades from journalists like Susan Wade of The Athletic, as well as NASCAR drivers including Thad Moffit and Corey Lajoie. Her favorite moment from NASCAR was witnessing Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. win the championship trophies. Outside the racetrack world, Neha immerses herself in the literary world, exploring both fiction and non-fiction.

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