Ryan Blaney may project calm professionalism at the track, but behind the visor, even one of NASCAR’s most even-tempered drivers has had his share of boiling-point moments. The in-car cameras have often caught glimpses of that frustration, whether it’s losing a lead, getting wrecked late, or being stuck behind slower traffic. Though Blaney now handles setbacks with a veteran’s composure, his younger self wasn’t always so composed, even after he stepped away from the racetrack.
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During a conversation on Coffee Country and Cody, Blaney recalled how his temper once followed him off the speedway and onto public roads. “I got a speeding ticket,” he admitted with a laugh.
“I do very well on the roads. Like, I’m a very slow driver. My wife gets super annoyed with me if we have to go somewhere fast because I take my time. But I was probably 18, and I was taking my younger sister to gymnastics one day, and I raced the day before, and, like, I got wrecked. Someone wrecked me for the win, and I was ticked off and stuff.”
Still simmering from the previous night’s frustration, Blaney said he let that anger carry over. “So, I dropped her off, and I’m hauling the mail to go back home, and I go over this hill, and I pass a cop, and he and I make eye contact like, ‘Oh no…'”
“And I know I’m running fast, and I just pull over, and I wait for him to come… and I’m already stopped on the side of the road waiting like I should have had my license out the window already.”
Blaney admitted that one mistake taught him a lifelong lesson. He somehow managed to keep it under wraps from his father for eight years, but the experience humbled him. “That was a rough one,” he said. “I haven’t had a speeding ticket since.”
That wasn’t the only time the #12 Team Penske driver’s racer instincts crept into his everyday driving. He recalled another moment early in his Cup career when muscle memory nearly got him in trouble. It was his rookie year, and after a weekend of averaging over 200 mph around Talladega, he started the long drive home to North Carolina.
But as he got on the highway and realized he was going 120, he slowed down. The reason was that he was so used to the speed that he couldn’t tell the difference. It probably lasted a minute or so before I realized how fast he was going and slowed down. Thankfully, no cop was around at that time.
Since then, Blaney has learned to switch off the racer mindset once the engine shuts down.
