NASCAR file photo

Ryan Blaney, the son of Sprint Cup driver Dave, won his first Camping World Truck Series race in September. He will be in the field for next Sunday's truck race at Rockingham Speedway.

Sports editor

There's one surefire way for a racer to get attention: Win.

That's why Ryan Blaney is high on the list of must-watch young drivers - along with Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and others - for NASCAR insiders and fans. The 19-year-old son of Dave Blaney, who has competed in 436 NASCAR Sprint Cup events, Ryan Blaney has a full-time ride in the Camping World Truck Series for team owner and 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski.

He already had caught the eye of the NASCAR world in several lower series, but solidified a type of top-shelf opportunity when he won the truck race for Keselowski at Newton, Iowa, last September. He will also run an undetermined number of Nationwide Series races for Keselowski this year.

"The win definitely boosted everything," said Blaney, who is from High Point. "We ran good in other races - second at Texas in the Nationwide Series - and that all adds up. It's given me the opportunities I'm getting this year.

"The win definitely had a snowball effect."

Blaney comes from a high-profile racing bloodline.

His grandfather, Lou Blaney, won more than 600 races in Modifieds and sprint cars, and he will be posthumously inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame on June 1.

Lou's sons, Dave and Dale, followed in his footsteps.

Dave has competed in Sprint Cup races for 16 years, and he won a Nationwide race at Charlotte in 2006. He was the 1995 World of Outlaws sprint car champion, and he ranks eighth all-time on that circuit with 70 feature wins. Dale, who is 6-foot-5, is one of the top sprint car racers in the country and the winner of several of the sport's major events. Before turning his full attention to racing, he played basketball, and he averaged 17 points per game as a senior at West Virginia University.

Ryan has worked his way up the racing ladder. In recent years, he has become one of the Southeast's top short-track asphalt drivers. In 2010, he won the CRA Southern Six Pack title, and he captured three PASS South series events en route to a runner-up points finish. In 2011, he scored wins at Dillon, S.C., and Altamahaw on his way to the PASS South crown. That same year, he won at Phoenix International Raceway in only his third start in a NASCAR K&N Pro Series West car.

Last year, he made five K&N Pro East starts for his dad's DB Racing team. He made nine truck starts with five top-10 finishes, including the win at Iowa Speedway, and in seven Nationwide outings for Penske Racing, Blaney's runner-up finish at Texas was one of five top-10 runs.

This season for Keselowski's truck team, he has finished eighth at Daytona and 16th Saturday at Martinsville, Va.

On deck for Blaney is the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 next Sunday at Rockingham Speedway. He hasn't raced at the mile oval before, but he's eager to tackle the high-banked, multi-groove track.

"I went to last year's truck race and watched it. It's a very racey race track - one of the best races I saw in trucks last year," he said. "It's great that NASCAR is back at a very valuable and traditional track and that we're racing trucks there. I think it's going to put on a great race like it did last year."

He's especially excited about Rockingham's physical and mental challenges. Tires wear out very quickly on the abrasive surface, and drivers who use their heads and save their equipment are usually smiling when the checkered flag falls.

"You can run top to bottom, lap after lap," he said.

"It definitely wears out tires fast and I usually like that where you have to manage your equipment for later in a run. I love when that comes into play and tires fall off a lot because that's when the driver really comes into play."

RACE WEEKEND AT THE ROCK

SATURDAY, APRIL 13

11:10 a.m. - UARA Late Model qualifying

Noon-1:30 p.m. - NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice

2 p.m. - UARA race (75 laps)

3-4 p.m. - Truck practice

4:45 p.m. - Kimmel Street Stock Series race (100 laps)

SUNDAY, APRIL 14

11:05 a.m. - Truck qualifying (two laps)

2 p.m. - North Carolina Education Lottery 200 race (200 laps)

TICKETS

rockinghamspeedway.com or 910-205-8800

Saturday: $15 in advance, $20 at the gate. Sunday: $20 and up

@dave-fulton
12 years ago
9,137 posts

Following is the obituary story for Ryan Blaney's grandfather, Lou Blaney, as published in 2009 in the Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette :

Obituary: Lou Blaney / Sprint and modified race car hall of famer

Lou Blaney - Courtesy of Speedway Productions Photo copyright property of John C. Pittman

Jan. 4, 1940 -- Jan. 25, 2009

February 1, 2009 1:29 am

By Diana Nelson Jones/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A household name to racing fans in this region but renowned by race car drivers nationally, Lou Blaney chalked up more than 600 wins in a 47-year career.

The DIRT Motorsports and Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Hall of Famer died Jan. 25 at Sharon Regional Hospital in Mercer County. He was 69.

His wife, Kate, said his health started to decline eight years ago when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Blaney and his wife also operated the Sharon Speedway.

A native of Hartford, Ohio, Mr. Blaney was raised on a farm beside the sawmill his father operated. His father also owned a small collection of race cars. Mr. Blaney followed his father into the business and developed a passion for racing on the side.

His first race, in 1958, was in a Cadillac-powered 1934 Chevy coupe, said Walt Wimer, a racing historian and track announcer.

The following year at the Greater Pittsburgh Speedway in Clinton, he and his sprint car were part of a three-man team whose cars were called the "three white mice," Don Gamble wrote in his "Remember When" column for speedwayproductions.biz.

Mr. Blaney made the move to driving modified, or stock, cars in 1978, when he ceded his sprint car to his son, David, now a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. His other son, Dale, is also a veteran sprint-car driver.

"Until he hung it up a few years ago," Mr. Wimer said of the elder Blaney, "he had won 343 [modified] races. That's a pretty amazing total even if he'd been racing modifieds his entire career."

"He truly was a dirt track legend both during his life and however long dirt track oval racing continues into the future," Mr. Wimer wrote in a tribute.

Known as a man of few words, Mr. Blaney eschewed controversy and the spotlight.

Mr. Wimer, who watched Mr. Blaney race in both sprint and modified cars for decades, said he "seldom in a long career had fusses with track officials." He said that was pretty uncommon.

"He never kept track of wins or trophies," said Kate Blaney. "He just loved the sport, and he shared his knowledge with other drivers."

He was good enough to be a bigger star but chose a life of scale, balancing minor fame with everyday life. He worked in the sawmill five days a week, racing two or three nights a week.

"My son David would tell you he always called his dad the 'real deal.' David has raced with [the likes of] Tony Stewart and says his dad could have done the same thing if he had chosen to," said his wife.

"He loved to race more than anything in the world, but he loved his lumber business, too. He was a worker all his life."

Mr. Wimer said that for most drivers, the favored lane is the inside. "Lou liked to race on the outside, the tougher way around. He would just go out on the outside and pass guys. He was one of the cleanest drivers I ever knew."

A graduate of Hartford High, Mr. Blaney was a basketball standout, scoring 1,200 points.

He is survived by his wife; sons David, of High Point, N.C., and Dale, of Hartford, Ohio; and five grandchildren.

Funeral services were Wednesday in Ohio.

--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Young Blaney Ready for Rock Trucks Outing; Grandpa Goes in Sprint Car HOF June 1

Obituary: Lou Blaney / Sprint and modified race car hall of famer

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