Ryan Blaney is exceptionally good when it comes to racing at the Phoenix Raceway and he proved his mastery of the short track once again last Sunday when he piloted his No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse to Victory Lane. His expertise, at least partly, is owed to the 2012 Cup Series champion and fellow competitor, Brad Keselowski.
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Blaney was a driver for Brad Keselowski Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series back in 2012. He accompanied Keselowski to a Cup Series test at Phoenix late that year, where the newly made champion had underlined how important it was for him to get good at the track.
Keselowski narrated the story on a recent episode of Dale Jr. Download. He said, “I remember taking him. ‘Come with me, man. You need to get good at this track. This is an important track for you. He had to be like maybe 18 or 19 at the time. He spent two days in the garage area, in the stands, watching and learning the track.
“He’s just been really good there ever since. I would say it’s his best track by pretty long ways,” he added.
Welp, @keselowski might be PARTLY at fault for why Ryan Blaney is so good at Phoenix. @Blaney do you know this story? pic.twitter.com/rZbwMl0uYU
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) March 11, 2026
The best part of that test session arrived when Keselowski had a crazy idea pop up in his head. At the end of the second day, he wanted to let Blaney drive his car for a few laps around the track. His team was on board, and Blaney was eager to do it as well. NASCAR, however, was pretty offended that they would even consider something like that.
Keselowski continued, “Blaney’s sitting there, and we are like, ‘Hey, Blaney! You wanna run a few laps?’ He is like Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights. ‘I wanna go fast!’ We are like, ‘Alright. Let’s go ask NASCAR.’ NASCAR had to approve. We thought it would be pretty easy. But they were so pissed.”
Blaney not being a Cup Series driver meant the promotion couldn’t let him drive a Cup Series car even during a test session. But the fact that Team Penske had approached them with the request appeared to have stung the officials pretty badly. Keselowski said that they remembered it four months later and brought it up angrily during another discussion.
More than a decade has passed since and Blaney is a Cup Series champion now. Even though he didn’t get track time that day, his observations had done enough to let him master the trick to dominating the track. He has two wins, 11 top-5 finishes, and 15 top-10s across 21 appearances there since.
