DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ryan Blaney parked his car against the high-banked outside wall at Daytona International Speedway and floored it, spinning his rear tires and sending plumes of smoke into the grandstands as fireworks lit up the sky late Saturday night.
It was a unusual celebration for the Team Penske star — he doesn’t usually do celebratory burnouts — and it might be the first of many down the stretch this year for the No. 12 Ford.
Blaney closed NASCAR’s regular season with a flurry, winning at Daytona and moving into fourth place in the Cup Series points standings heading into the playoffs. He will open the 10-race postseason next weekend at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway three points behind Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing and six shy of co-leaders William Byron and Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports.
And yet Blaney might just be the favorite to win it all, especially considering his past and his present. The 31-year-old notched his sixth consecutive top-10 finish with the Daytona victory, making him the hottest driver in the series.
“I think it speaks volumes to how good we have been when we’ve finished races,” Blaney said, recalling seven events in which he either crashed or had engine trouble, leading to the dreaded DNF (did not finish) designation. “I’d say half those DNFs, we had a good chance of winning the race or at least running top five.