MOORESVILLE, N.C. — In the latter stages of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix, Ryan Blaney of Team Penske was starting to lose his cool.
He had raced his way up to second place behind Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and wanted to be in the lead. He was fearful that the only two championship contenders still in the race, Kyle Larson, and William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports, could close the gap.
Those two drivers were running in fourth and fifth position, but a few seconds behind the pace of Chastain and Blaney.
Although the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is designed to be a “Winner Take All” format, the champion doesn’t have to win the race. The championship is decided by the highest finishing position out of the four drivers eligible for the title.
Team owner Roger Penske had to remind Blaney of that to keep him from boiling over behind the wheel and potential making a risky move that was unnecessary.
“There is no secret that I can snap on the radio,” Blaney said. “That’s been my whole life. That’s been my whole career. It’s just kind of something I do.
“The fact that Ross said I raced him hard, the dude blocked three lanes in the corner of every lap. I don’t know how I’m racing him hard. When you look in the mirror going left, right, left, following wherever I go, I don’t understand how he thinks I’m racing him hard.
“He’s backing me up to the 5 (Kyle Larson). I have to go. He’s backing me up to Larson to where I’m going to be in trouble.”
Blaney showed his displeasure by ramming into the back of Chastain’s Chevrolet. The Trackhouse Racing driver didn’t flinch and didn’t give up the lead, either.
Blaney was unapologetic for that move.
“(Bleep) right I hit him on purpose,” Blaney said emphatically. “I mean, yeah, I hit him on purpose. He blocked me on purpose 10 times. So, yeah, I hit him on purpose.
“What do you expect me to do? He’s backing me up to the other championship guy, and I got to go. We were just racing hard.
“But do I think he was overaggressive on the blocks?
“Yes, very much so.
“Did I hit him?
“Yes, I did. That’s just part of it.”
The next voice Blaney heard over his radio, was Penske.
The 86-year-old Penske had to remind the suddenly hot-tempered driver not to lose his cool, he just needed to maintain his position to win a championship.
“Other than the spotter, I have the right to give him a couple shots one way or the other,” Penske said. “He was running fine. He was concerned that he was being backed up by the 1 (Chastain) obviously to the 5 (championship contender Kyle Larson), which he really wasn’t.
“I was calming him down. He was doing a great job. The guys, Jonathan (Hassler, the crew chief), the team, good pit stops, good strategy on getting their car right.
“It’s more to say, ‘Hey, you’re doing a good job. I told him before the race, win, lose or draw, you’re a champion.’”
Penske has earned the nickname, “The Captain” because he is a captain of industry and the leader of the race team.
“I think the captain had to stay cool. He was the coolest guy on the ship,” Penske said with a smile. “I would say I probably was cool. Inside I was turning over, counting the laps. Seven to go.
“Finally, our man said, ‘Seven to go.’ He had a nice lead at that point.
“I was waiting for the yellow. How about you?”
Chastain went on to win the race, Blaney finished second and became the NASCAR Cup Series champion.
“Oh, by far, this tops everything, right?” Blaney said. “This is what you dream of as a kid. This is what you strive for. This is what you run 35 races a year for. To get to this moment, have a championship, you have to run a perfect race to get it.
“Definitely a huge moment not only me, but everybody also involved in it. It’s way bigger than I am. I can’t thank those folks enough for doing what they do.”
Son of a sprint car driver who had a long Cup Series career, Dave Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Champion is one of the talented young racers in the series, but at Team Penske, he is part of a talented team that has many big names.
When Blaney started at Team Penske, 2012 Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski was the leader of the team. Then came two-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano. Keselowski left and joined what is now RFK Racing. Team Penske’s other driver is Austin Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 winner.
Blaney was a winner and is talented but wasn’t always viewed as the top driver at Team Penske.
Today, he is a champion.
“I look back over 10 years, how it kind of all came through,” Blaney recalled. “Would never have thought 10 years ago I’d be here today. Just was lucky to be able to have an opportunity to drive for a team like Team Penske and work with such great people from the Xfinity side to the Cup side, to be able to drive for the Wood Brothers for a couple years.
“Honestly, I haven’t said it, I’m ashamed of not saying it, Brad Keselowski was a huge piece of getting me in there, was a massive piece of driving their Xfinity program. I drove his Trucks for a couple years. Brad was a huge connecting piece with me being a part of the Penske group.
“I can’t thank him enough. It was a lot of fun seeing him after the race. He came to the stage. That meant a lot to me because, like I said, he’s a huge part of my career. Yeah, you want to drive for amazing people, and I’ve been lucky to do that from Brad to the Wood Brothers to Penske.
“It’s been a dream come true.”