Ryan Blaney refuses to be NASCAR’s version of legendary rock star Alice Cooper… You know, the guy who 53 years ago had the big hit, ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy.’
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The 31-year-old Blaney takes pride in being a nice guy in a sport that has its fair share of not-so-nice guys. But that’s just the way Blaney was raised.
Ryan’s grandfather, Lou Blaney, and his sprint car legend father, Dave Blaney, raised him to treat people with respect in life, and especially on a racetrack. The Team Penske driver spoke about his nice-guy persona in Loudon, New Hampshire, the venue for Sunday’s Round of 12 playoff opener.
“There’s always this discussion brought up specifically about me, like, ‘Hey, do you think guys take advantage of you because you race a certain way and maybe they feel like they can take more of an advantage of you?’ Blaney said during Ford media availability this week.
“My dad taught me at a young age, when I was getting going [as a racer], that you give respect and you hope to get it back,” added Blaney.
“I’ve tried to be really respectful, no matter what it is. When I was a rookie and as I’ve been in it for a while, I try to be respectful. It’s just not in my nature to be the rough guy. That’s just not how I was raised. That’s not how my dad taught me to race. It’s not how the guys I grew up racing late models around raced. We all respected one another,” he elaborated.
While Blaney races his competitors respectfully, he’s not a pushover, either. He gives what he gets.
If a driver tries to push him around, Blaney knows that he can’t let that happen. That’s why it’s rare to find any competing driver who has anything bad to say about the driver of the No. 12 Ford Mustang.
Blaney will never be like The Intimidator
In a sense, Blaney is the complete opposite of the late Dale Earnhardt, who was known for his ‘chrome horn’. He used to push opponents out of the way so he could get by, usually en route to another one of his 76 career Cup wins or one of his record-tying seven Cup championships.
During his championship-winning season in 2023, Blaney knew he had a target on his back, especially going into the title-deciding Championship 4 race in Phoenix. But he raced clean, and in turn, cleaned the house by taking home the champion’s trophy and well over seven figures in prize money.
“If you just kind of get racing hard with somebody, well then you put that in your brain and maybe you run them harder,” Blaney said. “I’m not one that’s gonna go out and intentionally turn someone around or things like that,” said Blaney.
“[Former Cup champ] Matt Kenseth actually had a very good quote. He was on Dale [Earnhardt] Jr.’s podcast a couple years ago, and he was like, ‘I don’t really like running into guys, but I really don’t like getting run into, so I would just hit you twice as hard and that’s the end of it,’” he continued.
“I guess I’ve just always thought that way. I [said] Friday out at Bristol, and I think the best thing you can do is, ‘OK, this guy seems to need to rough me up to get by me or beat me.’ I think the biggest statement you can make is, ‘I’m just gonna beat you clean, and I’m never gonna touch you.’ That’s a bigger statement.
“I don’t need to resort to that stuff to drive by you and beat you. That’s just my mindset and how I’ve always been as far as behind the wheel and how I like to race people,” added Blaney.
Besides the mindset, Blaney can also be confident in the fact that he has won at three of the remaining seven tracks left on the playoff schedule. The Team Penske driver has not won in New Hampshire, though. However, he has finished in the top 10 in six of the last eight races at the 1.058-mile oval, which is good enough to make him believe he can gun for Victory Lane.
