Ryan Blaney looks to carry Penske’s speedway success into Daytona 500 win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For years, Ryan Blaney had one of the most fascinating seats in NASCAR. 

It wasn’t in the No. 12 Ford at Team Penske. It was in a conference room at the team’s Mooresville, North Carolina, shop, or in a team hauler at the track.

There, he would listen to Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski break down races at Talladega and Daytona.

While Keselowski now is a driver/owner at RFK Racing, he built a legacy at Team Penske. That organization has won at least one race at Daytona or Talladega each season for the past nine years. No other Cup team can match that in the same time.

What Keselowski started, Logano continued, followed by Blaney and Austin Cindric, the reigning Daytona 500 champion. Logano starts third after winning his qualifying race Thursday. Cindric is sixth. Blaney starts seventh.

Blaney is among the favorites (along with Logano) in today’s race. Blaney has twice finished runner-up in the Daytona 500 and was fourth in last year’s race. He’s won a series-high three of the last 13 races at Daytona and Talladega.

Blaney’s success at these tracks can be traced to what he learned from Keselowski and Logano. Both have different ways of approaching speedway racing and Blaney absorbed the lessons.

“It was cool being a 21-year-old kid sitting in there with Brad and Joey … and listen to them talk about the speedway stuff when I didn’t know much about it ,” Blaney said. “It was very neat, very insightful. There were some interesting conversations that happened.”

Is this finally the year Ryan @Blaney wins the #Daytona500?@JeffBurton says yes. pic.twitter.com/EsQP2NeRlB

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) February 18, 2023

Both Logano and Keselowski are calculating and aggressive at Daytona and Talladega. But