The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to mark Ryan Blaney’s 10th as a full-time competitor in the series and eighth in a row driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry for Team Penske. As Blaney prepares to commence a new season of racing with an opportunity to achieve his first victory in the Daytona 500, he will do so with a milestone start in place for the event. By competing in this year’s season-opening event, Blaney will make his 11th career start in the Great American Race.
A third-generation racer from High Point, North Carolina, Blaney made his Daytona 500 debut in 2015, where he was piloting the No. 21 Ford entry for Wood Brothers Racing. By then, he had notched five victories between the Craftsman Truck and Xfinity divisions and was slated to compete in 20 Cup events with the Wood Brothers organization. Starting in 12th place for the 57th running of the Great American Race, Blaney ended up in 39th place after retiring late due to an engine issue.
The following season, Blaney, who was campaigning in his first full-time Cup season with the Wood Brothers, started in seventh place for the 58th Daytona 500 and settled in 19th place. He then notched his career-best result in the event during the 2017 season by finishing in second place. The latter result occurred amid a late fuel-mileage battle, where Blaney rocketed from seventh to second during the final lap and had enough fuel to cross the finish line behind race winner Kurt Busch.
The 2018 Daytona 500, which marked the 60th running of the Great American Race, generated a strong performance from Blaney, who transitioned to Team Penske and piloted the No. 12 Ford entry. After finishing in fourth place during the Clash and winning the first Daytona Duel event that awarded him the third-place starting spot for the main event, he proceeded to lead a race-high 118 laps during the 500. Despite contending for the victory with two laps remaining, Blaney was involved in a multi-car wreck that resulted with him pitting to have his car repaired. Nonetheless, he rallied to finish seventh during an overtime shootout.
Over his next six Daytona 500 starts, Blaney would accumulate three additional top-eight results and two top-four results. This includes his recent finish of 30th place after he was eliminated in a multi-car wreck with 11 laps remaining. Within the streak, he tied his career-best result in the Great American Race by finishing second in 2020 amid a final-lap harrowing accident. During the latter event, Blaney drafted veteran Ryan Newman past Denny Hamlin on the final lap during an overtime restart and was set to draft Newman to the victory when he bumped and sent Newman head-on and upside-down entering the frontstretch. With the lead in his possession, Blaney was then edged at the finish line by a hard-charging Hamlin by 0.014 seconds, which marks the second-closest finish in the history of the Daytona 500. Two years later in 2022, Blaney attempted to make a race-winning move on teammate Austin Cindric on the final lap entering the frontstretch when the latter stalled the former’s momentum by making contact and resulted with Blaney getting loose and wrecking on the frontstretch after finishing in fourth place.
Through 10 previous starts in the Daytona 500, Blaney has recorded three top-five results, five top-10 results, 186 laps led and an average-finishing result of 17.2 as he continues to pursue his first victory in the Great American Race. A victory in 2025 would result with Blaney delivering the first 500 victory for Team Penske’s No. 12 team since Ryan Newman made the last accomplishment in 2008 and the 18th overall for the Ford nameplate. In addition, Blaney would become the first member of the Blaney racing family and the 44th competitor overall to win the Great American Race. Blaney’s father, Dave, made 12 career starts in the 500 and notched a career-best 14th-place result in 2005 while driving for Richard Childress Racing.
This week, Blaney, who was the championship runner-up this past season after he previously won his first Cup Series title in 2023, will participate in a single-car qualifying session on Wednesday, February 12, and in one of two Duel events on Thursday, February 13, to determine his starting lineup for this year’s Daytona 500. The qualifying session on Wednesday will begin airing at 8:15 p.m. ET on FS1 while the Duels will begin airing at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.
The 2025 Daytona 500 is scheduled to occur this upcoming Sunday, February 16, with a starting broadcast time of 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
