The face of Ford racing is not Joey Logano, although he’s out front a lot. And it’s not Brand Keselowski either, although he often has insightful comments about Ford and racing in general.
The face of Ford racing is Ryan Blaney, the first driver to advance to the round of eight in NASCAR’s Cup playoffs with his victory last Sunday at New Hampshire. The generally laid back Blaney has been, almost unnoticed, carrying Ford on his back for the last three years. And he could well be the most underrated driver in the sport.
Oh, he gets some props. After all, he did win the NASCAR Cup championship in 2023. In fact, with Logano bookending him in 2022 and 2024 Ford’s Team Penske has won three straight championships, which shows just how meaningless that trophy is.
Because outside of 2022 when the Nest Gen car was introduced and it was pretty much hit and miss as to how to get the most out of it, Ford has struggled to compete in the new model, and it’s certainly not at the level of Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs racing, NASCAR’s two elite teams and top rivals.
The three championships and a number of race wins kind of mask Ford’s struggles. From the start, the car’s nose was aerodynamically inferior to Chevy and Toyota, especially on the intermediate tracks that are NASCAR’s bread and butter.
So NASCAR allowed Ford to redesign the nose, bumper and front fenders this year in an effort to improve performance. And there are signs Ford has gotten better.
This is particularly true of the Wood Brothers, who have a close technical alliance with Ford and Penske and have gotten a big boost from Josh Berry, who replaced Harrison Burton in their car this season.
Still, if you use the Old Guy Sport competition index as a measuring stick, Ford has a ways to go to get competitive with Hendrick and particularly Gibbs, although this isn’t necessarily reflected in the NASCAR standings.
But the OGS competition index is a better measure of competitiveness than the NASCAR point system because it’s based on who’s leading laps and scoring top five finishes, whereas NASCAR awards points based on finishing races. And where you finish gives very little indication of how you ran.
Looking at Penske’s performance over the past three years, you see how big a part Blaney has played in whatever success Penske and Ford have have had. Discounting super speedway races, which depend on avoiding the big wreck and being in the right place at the right time on the last lap to get a good finish, and are therefore no measure of how well a driver or team run, Blaney’s performance is outstanding by almost any valid statistical measure.
Over the last three years, the four Penske cars (including the Wood Brothers entry) have scored 2,269 points according to the OGS competition index. Blaney has 1,111, or almost half, by himself. He is the only Penske driver to finish in the OGS top 10 all three years and the only Penske driver to improve his point totals every season.
Going into Sunday’s race at Kansas, Blaney stands third in OGS points with 408, just behind Chase Briscoe’s 455 in second. And again, going into Kansas, Blaney has seven wins and 27 top fives over the past three years per OGS scoring, more than the rest of the Penske team combined.
Logano has four wins and 19 top fives, Austin Cindric one win and four top fives and the Wood Brothers entry has one win and three top fives. Combined, that gives them a total of six wins and 26 top fives.
Speaking recently on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Blaney talked about his success. “These guys (his team) are great, I’ve said it for years,” Blaney commented. “All the guys on the 12 team are awesome.
“Jonathan (crew chief Jonathan Hassler) is unbelievable. It’s been a pleasure to work with them for as long as I have and continue to get better. These guys continue to refine their craft and become closely bonded and trust each other,” Blaney said. “You have 100 percent trust already but it continues to build with time.
“It’s fun to go to work with these guys every week and just have a good time with it and understand when you’re in the trenches, you’re in it together,” Blaney continued.
“We lift each other up when things aren’t going good and support each other, and when things are going great, you’re having a fun time. It’s just a huge testament to them,” Blaney declared.
“It makes me look good. I get to drive a really fast race car; that’s where it starts, giving me fast race cars, I appreciate that.
“Penske has done a bang-up job of it and hopefully we can continue building on some of the momentum through these next couple of races and then the rounds to come, the races to come,” Blaney said.
In the past, the legitimacy of some of Penske’s championships have been questioned because they don’t do much during the season and then come alive for the playoffs.
But if Blaney wins it all, there can be no question. Put him in a fast car and he runs fast, from the very first race to the very last. He can be as good as anybody. He’s proven that.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Kansas: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Chase Briscoe, 3-Kyle Larson. First race winner at Kansas: Larson. Top five at Kansas in first race: 1-Larson, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Ryan Blaney, 4-Chase Briscoe, 5-Alex Bowman.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport New Hampshire picks: 1-Hamlin, 2-Bell, 3-Larson. Last week’s New Hampshire winner: Blaney. OGS competition index record after 25 races: 11-13, .458, (No Pocono pick).
OGS competition index top 10: 1-Hamlin 536 points, 2-Briscoe 455, 3-Blaney 408, 4-Bell 377, 5-Larson 376, 6-William Byron 356, 7-Shane van Gisbergen 295, 8-Chase Elliott 190, 9-Joey Logano 185, 10-Bubba Wallace 174.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks (tracks similar to Kansas): 1-Hamlin 305, 2-Briscoe 274, 3-Larson 238, 4-Blaney 220, 5-Byron 186, 6-Wallace 130, 7-Ross Chastain 102, 8-Logano 89, 9-Tyler Reddick 73, 10-Bowman 64, Chris Buescher 64.
