NASCAR driver Ryan Blaney wrapped up his 2021 season as the winner of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. And as the second seed in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the 28-year-old reached the Round of 8 and finished seventh in the overall standings.
2021 was Blaney's best single-season performance. He racked up three wins, 20 top-10 finishes, 30 most-lead lap finishes, and recorded a career-high 11.9 finishing average. On Sunday, the iconic Daytona 500 will mark the beginning to the 2022 campaign, and Blaney is eager to build off last year's success.
"Execution was huge. Every year, you try to do better, as far as, 'What'd we do wrong in previous years, what'd we do right. Let's work on them,'" Blaney told The DA Show on Wednesday. "I thought we did a good job of staying in races, then putting ourselves in position at the end of races to capitalize on and win them. So, definitely a good building block last year... The biggest thing [about Daytona] is just trying to survive it, trying to survive until the end...
"Last year in the 500, I got in a big wreck on like Lap 15, and was on a couch at home watching the end of it. That's no fun. Some things you can't control. Sometimes you can't control your fate... The best thing is controlling things you can control, put yourself in a position to be there at the end of this 500-mile race. Because if you're there at the end, you're going to have a shot to win it. But, a lot easier said than done."
Blaney, who's the full-time driver of the No. 12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske, has seven career wins and 49 top-five finishes in 234 races in the Cup Series. The Ohio native has also won seven races and earned 43 top-five finishes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. According to the William Hill Sportsbook, Blaney has the fourth-best odds to win the 64th running of the Daytona 500.
The entire NASCAR conversation between Blaney and DA can be accessed in the audio player above.
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