For many young guns in NASCAR they just want to do the best they can so that he or she can show what they are made of. One of them was Ryan Blaney. He ran part time for Brad Keselowski Racing for 2012 in the trucks while also racing part time for Tommy Baldwin Jr and Roger Penske in that year in Xfinity. So in 2013 Blaney got his big break to race for BKR full time in the truck series. But it would be an up and down year as he would finish 6th in the standings. But in 2014 many people saw Blaney as a championship favorite. And he proved why at the season opener at Daytona running in the top 10 all night long and with the closing laps looked to be in a great position to win it all. But with the late run on the outside by Timothy Peters, Ben Kennedy, and 4 time champion Ron Hornaday pushed him back to a still respectable 6th place finish. In Martinsville he'd finish 5th collecting good points early on in the season's 22 races. But the next 2 races wouldn't be top 5s or top 10s. In Kansas while going up against Cup regulars Kyle Busch and Joey Logono for the lead. But he clipped the apron, got loose which spun around, then got hit by Johnny Sauter and Tyler Young making him finish 22nd. At Charlotte he was very fast again but while trying to get into the top 5 with 29 laps to got gets tapped by John Wes Townley sending him into the grass and then in the wall causing him to finish 22nd again. But rest easy because he wouldn't DNF a race for the rest of the year. But the qualifying was rained out at Dover meaning owner points decide the starting grid, so he starts 14th. Ryan however drove his way up to the front. He was drove his Cooper Standard Ford up to battle for the lead once again racing Cup regular Kyle Busch once again and the defending series champion Matt Crafton. It looked like another dominating win for Kyle but he attempted to make his pitstop Brennam Newberry wrecked on the frontstretch so he had to abort the stop. When Busch pitted he restarted 8th so Blaney had a chance to grab the lead. But he ran 2nd behind Crafton while a charging Busch was all over his tailgate. Kyle eventually would get the lead back while Blaney ran in 3rd. But during yellow flag stops for Cole Custer stalled on track with 65 to go Blaney got up to 2nd but would have to start at the rear because of a loose wheel. However he is only in 7th because of the pace the leaders set under green flag conditions. Blaney in the end would get all the way back up to finish in 2nd place behind the Kyle Busch Motorsports machine driven by Kyle Busch. This put him 7th 19 points behind title leader Timothy Peters. At Texas he would show winning speed from 3rd he got up to 2nd immediately at the start and would be at about a second behind leader Matt Crafton. At the first pitstops he would jump the 88 but would still be 2nd because 4 time champion Ron Hornaday Jr had a fast 4 tire stop. But nothing to worry about because Blaney then got the lead on a restart before his teammate Tyler Reddick wrecked in turn 4 giving Crafton an opportunity to take the lead away from the 20 year old. At lap 54 of 167 though another yellow flag was thrown because German Quiroga's engine in his Red Horse truck just exploded which also took out his teammate Timothy Peters. Pitstops came again but there's a twist, the Truck series have a limited amount of tires so they can't just fire them on every 15 laps. So Blaney got the lead only getting fuel while Crafton restarted 8th on 4 tires. Blaney drove away in the lead while Crafton was making slow but steady progress to the front. With 75 laps to go Blaney gave up the lead. If he was able to maintain his track position against a guy on fresher tires on a track that has an old surface he just needs to even up the score and he could win the race. He got that chance at the last restart of the race being side by side with him and then Hornaday makes it 3 wide and Blaney loses a bunch of spots from all of a sudden being LOOSE. He fell back to 6th now racing against Darrell Wallace Jr. These two are best friends off the track but on the track they are fierce competitors and Ryan gave it his all getting past the 54 Tundra being sideways while passing Wallace. He would get back in his groove and dispose of part time rookie Erik Jones and was on his way to get by Hornaday for 2nd and then fuel came into play. In the end most of the drivers came in for a splash and go minus Jones who took 2 tires and the top 5 which were Matt Crafton, Justin Lofton, front row Joe Nemecheck, John Wes Townley, and Joey Coulter. Blaney passed Hornaday during pitstops and due to Coulter and Townley running out of gas Blaney finished 4th moving him up to 4th in points 25 behind race winner Crafton. Now was Gateway, a track he and a lot of the field never raced at before was next. And you could tell in qualifying because Blaney struggled to get into a rhythm so he qualified 14th. Another fact about Gateway Motorsports Park is that it isn't the easiest track to make a pass on so early on he couldn't go anywhere. He even feel back to 17th because of being so tight in traffic. But at lap 65 during green flag pitstops the caution came for Gray Gaulding running out of gas and coming to a stop in the pit road entry. This was a massive advantage for Ryan because on an earlier yellow he got some fuel while getting his truck worked on so he was able to stay out and get the track position. He'd make great use of it maintaining his 4th place. But during the last pitstops he fell to 9th. He was able to to climb up to 7th when the race was all said and done putting him 17 points behind new points leader Johnny Sauter. Kentucky was relatively uneventful for the 29 team after qualifying 10th he quietly got up to the top 5 and even used 2 tires to get up to a 3rd place finish closing in on the point leader more and more now being 4th 12 behind now. But he was actually somewhat disappointed with his 3rd place finish. In his interview after the race he knows that it's a solid result but the team as a whole are slightly behind. Especially against KBM. BKR have been right there but just haven't been able to reach victory lane yet which is something that they all need to work on to continue to grow as a team. He's not wrong by any means there, 6 of the 8 races so far this season have been won by a Kyle Busch truck. 5 by Busch once for Darrell Wallace Jr. Dating back to the end of the 2013 season KBM have won 8 of the last 10 races. As Blaney knew going forward that beating those trucks will be tough and maybe Ryan is foreseeing a charge from Wallace Jr with their current form. However when you come to think of it, the Toyotas in general have been fast lately. In 14 of the last 15 truck series races have been won by Toyota and the entire manufacturer is going to be extremely hard to beat with 7 of the top 11 in points driving Toyota Tundras. While the blue ovals are only really being represented by Blaney because he is the only F150 driver running full time. Anyway going to Iowa he aimed to get that win at the place he claimed his first. He started 4th and got to 3rd quickly behind the KBM trucks of Wallace and Jones. But he also had one of the trucks to beat and he proved it by passing them on track. But Blaney fell to 2nd on pit road and would spend the rest of the race trying to get past Erik Jones. 13 to go he did try to get by the 51 but he couldn't finish the job finishing 2nd for the 2nd time this year putting him 2nd in the points 2 behind the guy trying to be the first to win 2 consecutive championships Matt Crafton. Heh I know that last tongue twister was pretty annoying but you know what's not annoying? Going to a dirt track. Yes, a dirt track! Something that has returned to the NASCAR calendar for the truck series. This is Eldora the place where NASCAR returns to dirt which was where drivers in the birth of NASCAR drove on. Dirt ringers that nobody has ever heard of even run this race and some Cup drivers do as well because they want to be able to race on dirt like some of NASCAR's greatest ever drivers did before them. Boy oh boy it's exciting to see. When it made the calendar in 2013 it was a massive success and it effectively meant that Eldora HAD to stay on the calendar and since has produced amazing racing but those races are for another day and let's focus on this one. For Blaney who is trying to get the point lead it's mixed emotions. A historic amazing opportunity lies ahead to race on the dirt but with the chaos that comes with it could be a disastrous blow in the points. An uneventful night is probably the best case scenario for the 29 team and that's what happened. He ran in the top 10 all night long and while some slight craziness occurred around him he got a very respectable 3rd getting the championship lead in the process. Next up is the tricky triangle aka Pocono. What is also tricky is the strategies that are possible here and which is the right one because it us possible to make the race on one singular pitstop and that's what Blaney tried to do and in the end was in position to end the Toyota dominance but a crucial restart he fell from 3rd to 9th. Good news is that the Toyota dominance is over and he now has a 7 point lead over Johnny Sauter but the bad news is that he finished 5th and didn't end the streak himself The 2nd half of the season began at Michigan where his boss the 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski was born. Michigan is a place where the Manufacturer especially wants to do well having guests show up to the race to support the team and so the pressure to perform is a little higher wanting to win in while they are present watching. He would head a Brad Keselowski Racing front row lockout and lead laps early on but when former champion Travis Kvapil blows an engine he pitted for fuel and would restart 3rd but afterwards would fall back and would struggle to stay inside the top 10. But it was more than an bad handling truck, his nose was actually coming loose ruining all the aerodynamics of the truck, ruining a chance to win, ruining his race all together with a 21st being all he has to show for it, and ruining his point lead as he now lies 3rd 16 behind Sauter. Bristol was another race to forget for Blaney with a unlucky 13th place losing him more points 24 behind now. Canada he needed to stop the bad runs and most likely need to win in order to take a significant chunk out of his deficit. Initially it looked like he wouldn't with a 14th qualifying effort but crew chief Chad Kendrick decided to try to do the race on a 1 stop strategy to get the track position while everyone else did 2, and it worked out with him cycling out to the lead. Now I have good news and bad news, bad news is that he probably needs some caution laps to save enough gas to make it to the end. Good news is that he got the caution laps he needed but bad news again is that now he has to hold off German Quiroga for the victory. But since Blaney has enough fuel he could push now all the way until the end.

And this was a much needed win for the 29 team as Chad Kendrick said that they needed to win races to be in this championship fight and that's what they did this race leading 34 of the 64 laps ran now placing him 13 points behind Sauter. With 8 races left in the season it appeared it was BKR's Ryan Blaney vs the ThorSport drivers of Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter. At Chicago early it looked to be a hard fought night ahead of him running up front with his championship rivals, as a matter of fact ThorSport in general. Crafton, Sauter, and Jeb Burton ran well plus the KBM trucks of Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch. Blaney ran in the top 5 for most of the race but crucially in the end his engine dropped a cylinder putting him back in 12th place. But with a rough night for Sauter Ryan only lost a net 3 points to new leader Matt Crafton. At the magic mile in New Hampshire looked like a great day with both his rivals starting outside the top 15 and with them playing catch up it was set up to be a very solid points day. He began 4th and worked his way up to 2nd but in yellow flag pitstops he had a disastrous pitstop putting him back to 7th. But when he was racing for 4th with strategy he got spun around by Timothy Peters. Blaney eventually did work his way back up to 10th but it's a tough blow in his championship hopes as he is now 24 behind and now his good friend Bubba Wallace is closing in the title fight as well. A strong performance was needed at Las Vegas and he would start off well from pole fighting for the lead with Wallace Jr but he was no match for the 54 truck and would have a pretty uneventful race afterwards and finish 6th. But Crafton would finish 3rd making the points gap grow to 27 now. He desperately needs a good run and for Crafton to struggle if he is to win his first truck championship. But a wild card remained in the season, and it was the next race on the schedule. That is Talladega. For the 29 team they obviously needed to survive before seeing where they stood in the championship race. He began the race in 5th but was fast from the very start getting to the lead and rarely giving it up. On lap 44 green flag pitstops were made and the 29 team were so fast he left somewhat on his own which is something you don't want to do at Talladega or Daytona. But Ryan Blaney was too fast himself as he has to serve a drive through penalty for speeding exiting pit road! If that was under caution it wouldn't be a big deal with the restrictor plates but under green is EXTREMELY devastating. Later on he lost a lap coming in the pits alone to serve his penalty. However a caution went out for a truck stopped on track meaning with the lucky dog Blaney was back on the lead lap. Now he showed his muscle on how strong that BKR truck is getting to contend for the win. He was running 2nd for an attempt at a green white checkered. With Crafton's struggles from being in an accident on pit road under caution and being penalized at one point for pushing even though he was being pushed. The rule on that is with the trucks built to be lined up so perfectly and the fact that you can't see what you're pushing towards which caused a lot of bug wrecks NASCAR decided in 2014 on restrictor plates in both the Truck and Xfinity Series to not allow pushing or else both people involved shall be penalized. The Cup cars aren't lined up for pushing so that polices itself. Anyway with all of that happening to Crafton it was key for Blaney to win this race. Plus fuel was an issue so that's another factor to play in this.

The runner up in the standings 16 points behind Crafton now with that crazy 5th place result and Crafton falling back to 14th. Heading to the paper clip known as Martinsville Blaney needed to continue to knock points pit of Crafton's lead. Early on he ran well leading laps early on but would fall back to the lower end of the top 10. Along the way he was nudged by rookie Cole Custer which upset Blaney and he was also worried that it was hindering his performance by rubbing on the tire. Nothing to worry about for the 29, no damage really to the truck or the tire yet when he his tires changed on a pitstop it showed some wear problems. Makes sense when he's talking about the truck being really loose and felling like he's gonna spin at any moment. So with a little bit of strategy Blaney was in the middle of the pack after his aforementioned first pitstop.

With around 60 laps left in the race he recovered all the way to 5th place after a combination of fresh tires and cautions he now is 18 points behind Matt Crafton. A net loss of 2 points but it's still a solid points day. Next was Texas where Blaney hoped to one up his strong run in the spring and win the race. He began from 9th and worked his way up to the top 5. He'd run as high as 3rd but went back to 5th. A caution would come out at halfway just after green flag pitsops. But he'd be back to pit road, not because of a missing lugnut but missing power from his battery. He Blaney felt a loss of power under caution and had his team look a the truck but it was a bad battery that was the cause so it got changed. But now he is the last truck on the lead lap in 17th. For the next few laps he wouldn't go anywhere while some of the guys ahead put tires on their trucks. But of course at some point Ryan Blaney got 4 fresh tires. And when he did that he drove his way up through the field up to the 7th position. A caution late with 9 to go meant that the 29 can pit again and get 4 more tires putting a set of tires he saved to good use. Things got even more interesting when another late caution set up a green white checkered finish. In the end he finished 9th while Crafton finished in 3rd making him 23 points behind the 88. At the penultimate race at Phoenix he needs to most likely win a race to cut a decent bit off of Crafton's point lead. However it would be tough because of the race not starting in an hour and 15 minutes because of a power outage at the track. So when it finally got going it STILL couldn't get going because in the first 45 laps of the race the longest green flag run would be 8 laps. Blaney began the race in 17th and only got up to 12th in all of this time from avoiding spins and wrecks from drivers Been Rhodes, Jeb Button, Timothy Peters, Spencer Gallagher, and Joey Coulter on 3 different cautions. Plus the field couldn't get into turn 1 at speed without wrecking on the frontstretch from a stackup. But when the longest green run of the night allowed him to get into the top 10 but title rival Crafton runs in 2nd. But then we would not get a run longer than 7 laps under green from lap 111-125 yet that didn't stop Blany from working his way up to the top 5 in 4th until a another caution came out. Not for Blaney, not for a wreck or even debris or mother nature. Remember when the race was delayed for a power outage? It's back and it was getting late and it took over an hour to get the lights on so NASCAR declared the race official. Meaning that Blaney's championship hopes are losing power now 25 points behind. Going into the season finale at Homestead he needed the 88 to struggle massively and probably DNF to have any chance of winning the title. Blaney began the race in 2nd and early on while racing hard in the top 5 with Cup starts Kyle Busch and rookie of the year Kyle Larson the 29 ran in the top 3 for most of the first half of the night while Crafton remained in the top 10. But Blaney slowly fell back into 5th with a off balance truck. Then to make matters worse his shifter handle broke so he fell to 14th on caution flag stops. The 29 would get back into the top 10 but it was noticable that he wasn't as fast as he was earlier. This was until a caution for fluid on the backstretch set up pitstops. In 14.2 seconds Blaney got 4 tires, fuel a pair of vice grips so he can shift properly on restarts, and for the icing on top of the cake his crew got him from 8th to 4th. Blaney make one last ditch effort to try to win the race as his speed was back on the final restart with 20 to go but in the end would finish 5th and 21 points behind Matt Crafton who finished 9th and became the first driver ever in Truck Series history to win consecutive championships. But as disappointing as it might be to miss out on a championship, there were big things going on in the rise of his career. Blaney would driver for the Wood Brothers in 2015 and Penske in Xfinity. In 2016 the Wood Brothers returned to full time running and in 2017 he got his first career Cup win getting his first career playoff berth. Then he began racing for Penske Racing in 2018 and has done well since. However one must think "What if Blaney never wrecked at Kansas or Charlotte?" What if the splitter never fell apart at Michigan?" And yet even with him becoming a Cup star yet in the Truck series some wonder what might have been for Ryan Blaney?