Did a Winless Millionaire Ryan Blaney Have Such a Terrible Season After All?

From 2017 onwards, Ryan Blaney steadily established himself as a race winner. Unfortunately, the 2022 NASCAR Cup season had to be the one to break his streak of at least one win every season. If we’re being technical, he did grab a win in the All-Star race at the Texas Motor Speedway. However, in the grand scheme of things, the All-Star win does not count, as it is not a point-scoring race. Despite this though, is it fair to rule the campaign as a write-off for the Team Penske driver?

Heading into the 2022 season, many believed that this would be Blaney’s big chance for a Championship 4. While he did make it into the Playoffs, he did not progress beyond the Round of 8. To make matters worse, he went winless, apart from the All-Star win. Despite all of that, it was not a bad season, and Team Penske kept the faith in him with another contract.

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How did the 2022 Cup campaign play out for Ryan Blaney?

Things began to go wrong for Blaney right at the start when he crashed out late during the Daytona 500. In spite of all the disappointments, Blaney definitely had the pace to win on multiple occasions. In qualifying, the #12 driver was consistently quick, especially in the first few races of the year, with three poles under his belt. To further twist the knife, Ryan Blaney snatched the most stage wins during the season but failed to convert them to wins at the end.

As it happens, the 28-year-old was able to boast of 9 stage wins. This gave him the unenviable record of having the most stage wins in a season without winning the race at the end. Blaney didn’t exactly dominate the proceedings, with 19 different winners during the campaign. The Daytona 500 should have been a race that he could have won, along with both races at Phoenix, and the spring race at Richmond.

Out of those four races, he led more than 100 laps in at least three of them. His poor luck reached a point where he had to rely on his championship points to sneak in. This year, his biggest stumbling block was consistency, as that was what cost him a Championship 4 spot. Now, all that he can do is try again in 2023 and hopefully, he can get his mojo back.

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