“It’s ironic, racing Harvick who is retiring now and Blaney is the champion, but that really showed us that he had the mettle to be a winner,” Penske recalled. “As we moved on, he was fast.
“We’ve used the Wood Brothers as a real farm team for us to work with our people, so Ryan came through that and, of course, he and Jonathan Hassler (crew chief) got together.
“Putting together those last races in the last six was amazing.
“I think it was a journey that he was on starting back a decade ago as a young guy.
“It’s a journey.”
There are others who played key roles in Blaney’s journey to a championship. They include Bill and Gail Davis of Bill Davis Racing, Tommy Baldwin and Len, Eddie and Leonard Wood of Wood Brothers Racing.
“There are so many people that are involved in it and I wish I could mention everyone, but you can’t,” Blaney recalled. “There are so many people that are involved, and I think that’s where my emotion came from immediately after the race was you think about all those people that gave you a shot as a kid — 20 years of meeting people, giving you chances, working with them. A lot of great men and women I’ve been able to work with through the years and met and gave me chances.
“All of those people roll through your mind and it’s great. It’s hard to believe and a lot of people deserve a ton of credit for all the chances over the last 20 years and that definitely makes it special. And it’s nice to talk to those people after Phoenix. You kind of reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a long time. Bill and Gail Davis reached out, which was great. They did a lot for my dad. Trent (Owens), who was fun. We worked with him a little bit on the K&N side, and it was a lot of neat people who have reached out and been really special for me personally.”
A key moment in that journey, as Penske mentioned, was Blaney’s first Cup Series win at Pocono in 2017.
“You get your first win in the series and internally it gives you confidence. ‘Hey, I can win at this level. I can be here,’” Blaney said. “I think that was fantastic, whenever you get your first one, but then you still have to prove yourself.
“You can’t just be one and done, you have to continue to try to do better and continue to grow as a driver and as a person.
“I think winning for the Wood Brothers there was great, and I can’t wait to talk about Eddie and Len, and Leonard and Glen, so that was a really special one and it opened up a lot of doors.”
Blaney has become NASCAR’s latest hero and enters the 2024 season as the defending champion. His reputation has been elevated forever, but Blaney doesn’t expect to be treated differently.
“I’m still the same person,” he said. “We just accomplished something. I think that’s how everyone else wants to approach it.
“Internally, personally I think it gives you more confidence. You’re a champion and you succeeded, and you did well in your job and your sport, but outside of that it doesn’t change. You’re still who you are and you’re still a person, but I think internally it gives you a good feeling of solidifying that you achieved the ultimate accomplishment goal. It makes you feel good, but other than that your life doesn’t really change that much, at least mine doesn’t.
“I try not to change anything too much.”
The offseason is a time of celebration. Blaney hopes to savor every moment while he can because once the green flag drops, it’s another race in another season.
“Once it turns to 2024, ’23 is forgotten about, so you can’t really focus too much on what we did last year because living in the past is no good,” Blaney said. “You’ve got to turn your focus on 2024.”
This story appeared in the Dec 20, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
