Ryan Blaney battled hard to become the 2023 Cup Series champion, and it’s no secret that his No. 12 NASCAR Ford Mustang Dark Horse has been a consistent threat on-track this year. Blaney wants to become one of the few drivers to win back-to-back titles, and he’ll stop at nothing to make it happen. In fact, he says he wants the entire field to be “scared” when they see his race car unloaded.
According to a report from NASCAR.com, Blaney’s 2024 season is right on par with his championship quest last year. He won at Iowa and Pocono already and racked up seven top fives and 11 top 10s in 26 races. He’s been extremely aggressive on track and seems to have made friends with the new Dark Horse-based race car, wielding it like a weapon on his way to the 2024 title.
“That’s what I’ve told my guys: I want to scare every other team,” Blaney said. “Like, I want you guys to be so good that everyone is nervous about us when we unload. That’s the kind of the mindset that we’ve tried to have because I think that’s a great mindset for everyone on the team to have. Like, you want everybody worrying about you because you can be that dangerous, and I think we definitely are.”
Blaney says that he feels more confident this year now that he has the Cup Series championship trophy to back him up, but he’s not going to get cocky and trip himself up.
“I definitely think you’re more confident in trying to get back to Phoenix,” Blaney said. “It’s not as simple as just ‘do what you did last year,’ though. But I feel like once you have that experience and you persevere through the three rounds to get there, I think it just really motivates your team and just gives them a level of confidence of like, hey, we know we can do this.”
The first race in the 2024 Playoffs is Atlanta, which is scheduled for September 8th, 2024. Victory narrowly escaped Blaney the last time the Cup Series visited the track when he lost a three-way photo finish to the No. 99 Chevy Camaro ZL1 of Daniel Suárez.
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