Ryan Blaney

Ryan Blaney (born December 31, 1993 in High Point, North Carolina) is an American stock car racing driver. He currently drives the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150 for Brad Keselowski Racing in the Camping World Truck Series as well as the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang for Team Penske in the Nationwide Series.

Career

Blaney's 2011 ARCA car at IRP

Blaney's 2011 PASS car at North Wilkesboro

Blaney's 2013 truck at Rockingham

A third generation racer and son of Sprint Cup Series driver Dave Blaney,^[1] Blaney started his racing career in quarter midget racing, winning his first race at age 9;^[2][3] he also competed, and won, in Bandolero cars at a young age.^[4] Moving up to Legends cars at age 12, Blaney won the Lowe's Motor Speedway Young Lion’s Winter Heat Point Championship, as well as in three divisions of the Carolina Fall Nationals in quarter midgets.^[2]

At age 14, Blaney debuted in late model racing at Orange County Speedway, while in 2009, at age 15, he began competing in the Pro All Stars Series (PASS)-sanctioned South Super Late Model Series, finishing second in points and winning the series' Rookie of the Year award; he finished third in the PASS national points as well. In addition, he won the Eastern Grand Nationals quarter midget event in Huntsville, Alabama.^[2]

Continuing to compete in the PASS South Super Late Model Series in 2010, Blaney scored his first career win in the series at Dillon Motor Speedway, adding wins at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and Newport Speedway on his way to a second consecutive second-place finish in the PASS South championship standings.^[2] Blaney also competed in the Champion Racing Association (CRA)-sanctioned Southern Six Pack series, winning the series championship for 2010.^[3] Returning to the PASS South Super Late Model Series in 2011, Blaney won two races in the series, at Dillon Motor Speedway and Ace Speedway, winning the series championship.^[2][5] He also made his debuts in the ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and East in 2011, scoring top ten finishes in every start in the three series;^[5] he won his first career NASCAR race in the K&N Pro Series West season finale at Phoenix International Raceway,^[6] winning by over two seconds.^[7]

For 2012, Blaney, who had won praise from Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick for his driving skills,^[8] returned to the K&N Pro Series East, running six races for family-owned DB Racing, driving the No. 10,^[9] as well as to the PASS Super Late Model Series in the Carswell Motorsports No. 98.^[10] In addition, he signed with Tommy Baldwin Racing to compete in six NASCAR Nationwide Series races, driving the No. 36 SealWrap Chevrolet,^[1][11] starting at Richmond International Raceway in April.^[4] Ryan qualified in the top ten in his debut at Richmond International Raceway, and finished seventh in the race.^[12]

In July 2012, Blaney announced that he had signed a contract to drive for Penske Racing a minimum of three races in the 2012 Nationwide Series season, starting at Iowa Speedway in August.^[13] He also ran selected races in the Camping World Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing,^[14] finishing sixth in his debut in the series at Bristol Motor Speedway.^[15] Blaney won his first career race in the Truck Series on September 15, 2012, at Iowa Speedway; at the time he was the youngest winner in Truck Series history at 18 years, 8 months and 15 days. The previous record was 20 years, 18 days set by Kyle Busch in 2005.^{[16][N 1]}

Blaney returned to the Camping World Truck Series in 2013, driving the full schedule for Brad Keselowski Racing and competing for the series' Rookie of the Year award.^[17] Blaney won his first career pole in the series at Kentucky Speedway in June,^[18] then in August won his second career Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway.^[19] Blaney also competed in the Nationwide Series at Iowa Speedway in June, substituting for Joey Logano after a rainout created a schedule conflict; Blaney finished ninth in the event.^[20] Blaney compted in a second Nationwide Series race in 2013, at Kentucky Speedway on September 21, and led 96 of the race's 200 laps to win his first career race in the series, beating Austin Dillon and Matt Crafton.^[21]

In January 2014, Blaney announced that in addition to a full Camping World Truck Series schedule with BKR, he would be running fifteen Nationwide Series and two Sprint Cup Series races for Team Penske during the year.^[22]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings. * – Most laps led.)

Nationwide Series

Camping World Truck Series

^* Season in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points
^† In 2012 Blaney switched from Nationwide to Truck Series points at Atlanta Motor Speedway in August.

References

Notes

Citations

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ryan Blaney.

• Official website
• Ryan Blaney driver statistics at Racing Reference