Ryan Blaney put on an impressive show to bring home Team Penske‘s back-to-back titles. After passing Kyle Larson multiple times during the second and third stages, the #12 driver had to survive tough competition from the Hendrick Motorsports duo to clinch his first-ever Cup Series title. The scene was surreal for Blaney as he raced across the line just behind the #1 Chevy, claiming the title a year after his teammate Joey Logano brought the championship to the Ford camp.

Despite the manufacturer’s agonizing streak, Blaney regrouped and bounced back, acing 2 out of the last remaining 6 playoff races to make his way into the championship decider at Phoenix Raceway. The third-generation driver even rolled back his remarks about the #5 driver that he had made earlier and praised him for keeping things clean and racing him with respect.

Ryan Blaney storms the gates in Phoenix, edging out the fearsome HMS duo for the title

Simply put, nobody actually gave the #12 Ford a chance to win the title. It all began in Charlotte when Blaney got his first taste of success, winning NASCAR’s most grueling race, the Coca-Cola 600, giving a brief sigh of relief to Ford fans amidst the miserable regular season. Making it past the regular season into the playoff rounds, Blaney survived the challenges one by one while his teammate, Joey Logano, got knocked out in the first eliminator.

However, the 29-year-old soldiered on, advancing to the later rounds, where he found his rhythm, acing 2 of the final 6 playoff races to get back the momentum needed for his title run. Heading into Phoenix, Blaney was the only Ford remaining in the final fray, but he managed to fight off the #24 and #5 Chevys till the last minute to register his first Cup Series title, passing Larson on the final laps.

Reflecting on the monumental win, Blaney said, “Just so proud of this team. What an unbelievable year, what an unbelievable playoffs for us. To win back-to-back Cup titles for Mr. Penske, that’s so special. And to have my family here, winning my first Cup title, I got emotional in the car. I’m not a very emotional guy.”

He then went on to praise the title contenders, Kyle Larson and William Byron, minutes after he explicitly called out the #5 driver on the radio for running him into bad air. Blaney said, “I want to shoutout also Kyle[Larson] and William [Byron]. That was fun racing those guys all day, and #20 [Christopher] Bell. Unfortunately, he broke. But racing those two guys at the end there, racing clean, that’s what racing’s all about. So, was a lot of fun.” 

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The 2023 Cup Series champion emotionally credits his team’s resilience

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Perseverance is one thing that separates the best from the rest. The patience and strength to weather the storm is something that gets any individual into the realm of the greats. In the NASCAR world, if a driver needs to succeed, he or she must have a resilient team, one that can cut through adversity and endure hardships.

And the No. 12 driver of Team Penske had just that. The Ford camp got through it all when Blaney broke his 59-race winless streak. In fact, the driver shook up the world from being a driver who ended his grim streak to becoming the champion in just a few months.

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Showering praise on his team, Blaney said, “In the summer, you know we were struggling a little bit. But we never gave up. And we just went to work. And I’ve said that all week, like, we just, this group just goes to work and they figure out problems. And that’s why they’re such an amazing group to be with—Team Penske folks, ‘coz they just put their head down and put the work and accept the challenge and that’s what they did, so it’s not happenstance.”