Column: Ryan Blaney’s Had Plenty Of Close Calls In The Great American Race Over The Years

Column By: HOLLY CAIN / NASCAR – DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Driving for Wood Brothers Racing in 2017, Ryan Blaney finished second to Kurt Busch in the DAYTONA 500.

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion was runner-up again in 2020 behind Denny Hamlin in a DAYTONA 500 that went to overtime and ended under caution.

In the eight years from 2017 through 2024, Blaney has posted five top-10 finishes in the Great American Race. In 2022, when Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric won NASCAR’s most prestigious race, Blaney was in the mix for the win on the final lap and finished fourth.

Blaney hopes his experience with close calls will help him in Sunday’s 67th running of the race (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I definitely don’t feel snakebit,” Blaney said. “I’ve been lucky enough to be close a few times—finished second twice. I’ve probably had a really good shot to win it three or four times, and it just hasn’t panned out for us…

“If you make a mistake and lose the race, then you really have to think about, ‘Hey, I’ve got to do better in this position’ and just learn from it.’ It’s nice to have been close, and you just hope to use those close experiences to help you, if you’re in that spot again.”

Blaney ran just six laps in Wednesday’s opening practice, eschewed the draft and was 38th fastest among 43 drivers who participated.

“It was nice to get on track and make sure everything’s doing well,” Blaney said. “It was good that they had a practice before qualifying, because last year you saw some cars have issue in qualifying on their first laps on the track.

“We made one change and saw if it helped our qualifying speed, and then you kind of go from there.”

Joey Logano has turned the page on 2024 championship season

Three-time and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano showed up for the first official day of work at the track insisting his championship hardware is on the shelf, and he and the No. 22 Team Penske Ford team are simply at the starting gate again.

“Your confidence is higher, but that’s the only thing that is different,” Logano said of coming to race as the defending series champion. “You’re coming off a good year, so you feel, obviously, solid about it, but we don’t have a lead on anyone anymore. We’re back to zero. The goal is no different. Our mission is still to win the championship. That doesn’t change.”

Logano is one of eight former DAYTONA 500 winners entered for Sunday’s race but an addition to his 2015 win would make him one of only three drivers entered this week —along with three-time winner Denny Hamlin and two-time winner Jimmie Johnson—with multiple victories in the sport’s biggest event.

While there are vastly different opinions on the style of close-quarters pack racing the famed Daytona high-banks produces, Logano said he not only likes it but feels a whole lot more in control of his destiny than perhaps some of his other competitors allow.

“I think you can control all of it,” Logano said. “I don’t see what parts you can’t. If you understand the probabilities and the chances around you and who’s around you and what they’re most likely to do, you can control most of your destiny.

“I kind of look at it like a card game, right? You can win with any hand, if you play it correctly. So maybe you don’t have the best hand, but you can probably figure out how to do something with it.”

Chase Elliott says impetus for Clash win surfaced late last year

For those looking from the outside, Chase Elliott’s single-win season in 2024—following a winless, injury-plagued 2023—might appear to be a study in mediocrity.

To the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, however, it was a year of progress that foreshadowed his victory in the season-opening Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium on Feb. 2.

It’s also a source of optimism as Elliott approaches the first points event of the season, Sunday’s DAYTONA 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“The end of last year I think was really encouraging for us,” said the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, who posted top 10s in three of his last four events of the season and finished second after leading 129 laps in the fall Martinsville race.

“I thought we ended on a really good note—we were just a little late to the party, I think, really and truly. We were starting to run better, lead some laps there at the end of the year, had a great shot to win a couple races during the last month. I thought all that was really encouraging.

“To be able to build on those things, come out and perform the way we did on Saturday (at Bowman Gray)… Yes, the race went well, but all that started over the offseason in the things we were focused on and talking about and thinking about.”

With a victory in the Great American Race, Elliott would be the sixth driver to start the season with wins in both the Clash and DAYTONA 500, joining Bobby Allison (1982); Bill Elliott, his father (1987); Dale Jarrett (1996 and 2000); Jeff Gordon (1997) and Denny Hamlin (2016).

Martin Truex Jr.’s retirement will have to wait another week

Martin Truex Jr. has 34 NASCAR Cup Series wins on his resume and dominated the 2017 season en route to the championship. He won back-to-back NASCAR Xfinity Series titles (2004-2005) and is a sure-bet NASCAR Hall of Famer when he becomes eligible.

Although he retired from full-time competition at the end of last season, Truex has chosen to compete in selected races in 2025, beginning with this week’s DAYTONA 500—a race he is 0-for-20 in but has a runner-up finish in 2016 by a slight 0.010-second.

Because the TRICON Garage team fielding his No. 56 Toyota this week does not have a charter, Truex will have to make the field on either qualifying speed or a good finish in the Duel 150. The two fastest “open” cars in qualifying earn a position in the 500, and the highest-finishing non-chartered car in each of the two Duels also advances.

“Not so much (different) getting ready for it,” Truex, 44, said of being an open car. “You prepare all the same. But I know when I leave here, I don’t have to worry about where I’m at in points or just anything like that. There are no repercussions.

“It’s just, ‘Have fun, hopefully have a great race, hopefully have a shot at winning this race for the first time.’ That’s the whole reason to do it, and really nothing else matters. It’s kind of fun and feels more old-school. You race each race as its own. The rest of the year doesn’t matter.

“But at the same time, we’ve got to make the race first. And that’s a different feeling, because I haven’t had to do that since 2005. Qualifying is way more important. Usually, you come down here and it’s qualifying or the Duels. It is what it is, and you start where you start. But now it’s important, so a little more nervous early in the week than usual.”

One thing Truex has been looking forward to at Daytona is reuniting with crew chief Cole Pearn, who led Truex’s 2017 championship run for Furniture Row Racing, then stepped away from the sport after the 2019 season and moved back to his native Canada.

“It’s like it’s always been, he didn’t miss a beat,” a smiling Truex shared of Pearn’s return. “He’s already complaining about inspection, about the rules, ‘Why are we doing this, and I can’t believe you got me back here to do this.’

“He’s right back on track.”