Ryan Blaney

Ryan Michael Blaney (born December 31, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver.

He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske.

He is the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion.

He is the son of former NASCAR driver Dave Blaney and the grandson of modified dirt track racer Lou Blaney.

A third-generation racer and son of then-Cup Series driver Dave Blaney, Blaney started his racing career in quarter midget racing, winning his first race at age 9; he also competed, and won, in Bandolero cars at a young age.

Moving up to Legends cars at age 12, Blaney won the Lowe's Motor Speedway Young Lions Winter Heat Point Championship, as well as in three divisions of the Carolina Fall Nationals in quarter midgets.

The previous record was 20 years and 18 days set by Kyle Busch in 2005.

At age 12, Blaney debuted in late model racing at Orange County Speedway, while in 2009, at age 16, 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.

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.

Blaney also competed in the Champion Racing Association (CRA)-sanctioned Southern Six Pack series, winning the series championship for 2010.

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.

In 2011, Blaney made his debuts in the ARCA Racing Series and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and East in 2011, scoring top ten finishes in every start in the three series; he won his first career NASCAR race in the K&N Pro Series West season finale at Phoenix International Raceway winning by over two seconds in his only series start.

For 2012, Blaney returned to the PASS Super Late Model Series in the Carswell Motorsports No. 98 car.

For 2012, Blaney, who had won praise from Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick for his driving skills, returned to the K&N Pro Series East, running six races for family-owned DB Racing, driving the No. 10 car.

In addition, Blaney signed with Tommy Baldwin Racing to compete in six NASCAR Nationwide Series races, driving the No. 36 SealWrap-sponsored Chevrolet, starting at Richmond International Raceway in April.

Blaney qualified in the Top 10 in his debut at Richmond International Raceway, and finished seventh in the race.

In July 2012, Blaney announced that he had signed a contract to drive for Team Penske a minimum of three races in the 2012 Nationwide Series season, starting at Iowa Speedway in August.

He also ran selected races in the Camping World Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing, finishing sixth in his debut in the series at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Blaney won his first career Truck Series race on September 15, 2012, at Iowa Speedway; at the time, he was the youngest winner in Truck Series history at 18 years, eight months, and 15 days.

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.

Blaney won his first career pole in the series at Kentucky Speedway in June, then won his second career Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway in August.

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.

Blaney competed 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.

Blaney was the only race winner in the 2013 Nationwide season to not have any Sprint Cup experience.

In January 2014, Blaney announced that in addition to a full Camping World Truck Series schedule with BKR, he would be running 15 Nationwide Series and two Sprint Cup Series races for Team Penske during the year.

Blaney drove the No. 29 truck full-time for Brad Keselowski Racing.

He had many Top 10 but failed to win in the spring.

However, his year's turning point was at Dover in late May 2014, when he came up short to Kyle Busch who beat him by 0.5 (one car length) seconds for the win.

After the race, Blaney was one of the drivers who said that because Kyle was winning a lot in the truck series, the Cup series drivers should no longer race in any division besides the Cup series.

Blaney won his second career Nationwide race in August 2014 at Bristol Motor Speedway, beating Kyle Busch in a green-white-checkered finish.

The next week, Blaney won his first Truck race of 2014 spectacularly at Ron Fellows' own Canadian Tire Motorsports Park raceway, edging German Quiroga by 0.49 seconds in a photo-finish.

In 2015, Blaney began his Xfinity Series schedule at Las Vegas in the Boyd Gaming 300.

After leading two laps, he was briefly in contention for the win.

After spinning out fellow driver Erik Jones late in the race, Blaney restarted the final restart in eighth place.

Despite this, he drove from eighth to second in the final 21 laps.

Though he caught up to race leader Austin Dillon with three laps to go, Blaney was unable to force his way by Dillon.

Blaney finished second to Dillon by a three-car-length winning difference.

He nearly won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Xfinity race, finishing second to Kyle Busch after being passed on the final lap.

He won at Iowa and nearly won at Road America in his debut on the track.