Ryan Blaney will become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson to win back-to-back Cup Series titles if he ends up beating his Championship 4 contenders in Phoenix this Sunday. In a fashion much similar to his campaign in 2023, he secured his seat in the finale by winning the Round of 8 race in Martinsville. But there are many differences between now and the driver that he was a year ago.
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Blaney is someone with a conscious understanding of self-development. He fails, he learns, he adapts, and he overcomes. This has been his story since the first time he got behind a race car to win a race. A mentor of sorts and a friend to his father, Jeff Burton noted this character of his in a recent interview with NASCAR host Shannon Spake.
He said, “We all go through changes in life, right? What I see is confidence. A belief in himself. The willingness to lay it out there and if you make a mistake, you make a mistake…”
“Ryan has gained confidence that if he’s pushing hard and he’s doing his job and he makes a mistake it’s going to be okay. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Mental stability in hard moments is a key trait in champions.
Blaney’s understanding of when to push and not to push himself too much is something that Burton admires in him. He continued to note that the No. 12 driver has a good knowledge of what’s required to reach the end of the season in contention for the title. His consecutive victories in the Xfinity 500 prove that none of the key moments are too big for him anymore.
Blaney acknowledges the differences in him between now and last year
Winning a championship is bound to change any driver. But there is a reason why not even those considered to be the best in the game have failed to win back-to-back titles, be it Kyle Larson or Kyle Busch. Repeating successes and carrying momentum across seasons is not an easy task in the NASCAR Cup Series.
But the case is different with Blaney and his team. He believes that he has been a stronger driver in 2024 than in 2023. He told Fox Sports, “We’ve had an overall way better year than what we did last year, and maybe it hasn’t shown because I’ve gotten in a ton of wrecks this year. It’s no one’s doing. I feel like us as a group, we’re way stronger than where we were in 2023.”
He has the same crew that worked for him last season building his car for Phoenix. Will they be able to conjure the same spell again? The question will be answered soon. Regardless of the outcome, Blaney has already established himself as one of the top dogs in the sport with his Championship 4 qualification.
