NASCAR Cup Daytona II
Ryan Blaney doesn't want to hear an Earnhardt comparison after Daytona drive
The 2023 Cup Series champion is starting to put together an impressive 'plate track' resume
Matt Weaver
Edited: Aug 24, 2025, 9:50 AM
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Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford
Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images
Ryan Blaney wanted no part of the comparison, but what he did over the final two laps of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Saturday night was Earnhardt-ian.
It’s a sacrilegious thing to suggest anyone in NASCAR is on the same scale as the seven-time Cup Series champion, but Blaney charging from 13th to 1st to win at the World Center of Racing contained shades of the Intimidator. Specifically, it was like Earnhardt’s final win at Talladega in the 2000 Winston 500, when he surged from 18th to win in just five laps.
When asked if he even felt like 2000 Talladega Dale, Blaney immediately shut the question down and just said ‘no,’ repeatedly.
Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford
Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images
He did not remotely want that comparison, even though he now has three wins at Talladega and a points win at Daytona. His peers consider him one of the best and it was fair to ask him if he felt like one of the best.
“I feel like I do a decent job,” Blaney said, again understating.
Blaney cited teammates like Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski over the years, having ‘soaked up information’ and ‘picked their brains.’
“I was able to turn it around and apply it to my racing as I got more comfortable and experienced in it,” Blaney added. “I just try to be patient. It's easy to get impatient in this deal, in the Daytona (and) Talladega things -- feeling like you have to take a run right now.
“Sometimes you just have to let it play out and see what happens. I try to be that way. I try to be patient and disciplined and in it for the long haul, and that's what we were tonight.”
Blaney has undeniable skill at superspeedways
NASCAR Cup photo finish with Ryan Blaney winning
Photo by: Chris Graythen - Getty Images
Team Penske president of NASCAR operations Michael Nelson called Blaney ‘special’ at this discipline.
“Think about how many races we've had this year where he's really coming through (and) challenging for the win at the end,” Nelson said. “And really, that’s just him in general, Darlington earlier in the year and so many races where when the end comes around, there he is and there’s that 12 car.
“He's pretty special. And again, we just needed a little bit of things to go our way tonight to get it across the finish line, but no, he's there every week.”
So again, when his bosses and peers all say the same kinds of things, why is Blaney himself so reluctant to truly entertain the praise as being realistic?
“A lot of things go into it,” Blaney said. “I can't do it by myself. It wasn't me out there making those -- I didn't just turn left and pass everybody by myself. You have to wait, which is what I think a good speedway racer is, ready for the opportunity to make the big move.
“I try to be patient for that opportunity. If it doesn't come, it doesn't come, and that's what it is. If it never comes, whatever.”
When opportunity knocks
Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford
Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images
On Saturday, Blaney said an opportunity arose when he and Cole Custer had a big run down the frontstretch at the same time the bottom line stalled out. He and Custer both took the run.
“You have no time to think about that stuff,” Blaney said. “It's a bang-bang play. You'd better just go with whatever your gut says. That was our opportunity to do it. If he wouldn't have done that, I don't know if we would have got there, honestly.
“It just kind of worked to where he and I were on the same page of we kind of just moved up together and we were able to carry all the momentum. It's all situational and you go with your gut on a lot of things. And I make a lot of bad decisions too out there, but this one tonight just happened to work out.”
Blaney says he’s reluctant to accept the praise because he has made a lot of bad moves too.
“I had a couple good teachers but I do think I do a decent job and I work really hard at it with (spotter Timmy Fedewa) to figure out which spots to be in. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
“I just try not to cause any big wrecks. That's the biggest thing.”
Blaney is objectively one of the modern elite at superspeedway racing but just don’t call him Earnhardt-ian.
He appreciated the question but also ‘thanks for making me laugh.’
Blaney isn’t having it.
Photos from Daytona - Race
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