Ryan Blaney offers a speech at the 2023 NASCAR Awards banquet as the champion, making a toast after collecting his first Cup Series title.
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00:00 Thanks for everyone for being here, I really appreciate it.
00:01 Congratulations to Ben and Cole,
00:04 the Thorsons, Gene Haas on your championships.
00:09 Thank you guys for being here tonight.
00:11 So hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
00:13 I'll try to keep this fairly short
00:15 'cause I know I'm excited to get out on the town
00:17 just as much as you guys.
00:18 So we'll get it going.
00:20 So yeah, just amazing year.
00:22 Congratulations to all the teams, drivers, owners, sponsors
00:26 on a 2023 season.
00:27 I mean, it flies by really quick,
00:29 but it's a big grind like everyone says
00:31 and it takes a lot of people to put it all together.
00:34 So I know we're all competitors
00:36 and we don't agree on the track a lot of times,
00:39 but it is a true honor to race with the best in the world
00:42 on a weekly basis and I do appreciate that.
00:46 So it's incredible.
00:47 I look back on 10 years when I walked in to meet RP
00:51 and Tim Sindrick in 2012.
00:54 And there's so many people that I have to give thanks to
00:58 and there's so many people that are involved
01:00 that gives you opportunities
01:02 throughout your career growing up that I have to thank.
01:04 So I'll kind of jump right into that.
01:06 So first of all, I wanna thank obviously my dad.
01:09 They're there, all right.
01:12 Obviously, growing up watching dad race,
01:16 that's just what I wanted to do
01:17 and I wanted to be like my dad
01:19 and super lucky to be able to see it at a young age
01:22 and kind of just get the whole spectrum
01:26 of seeing what it was like as a driver,
01:28 seeing how teams operated.
01:30 Kevin, I was gonna get to you later,
01:33 but congratulations on a great career.
01:35 But it's kind of freaking me out
01:38 because I remember when I was Keelan's age
01:41 with my dad at Driver Intros
01:43 and I was meeting all you guys
01:45 and now it's made me feel really old.
01:48 And seeing Keelan at Driver Intros and him racing now,
01:51 it's kind of reminds me of when I was his age.
01:53 But obviously my mom is a huge MVP.
01:56 She might take the mantle for that
01:57 because I think everyone in here knows,
02:00 I think mothers sacrifice the most
02:02 for young kids doing their sports growing up,
02:05 making sure that you're where you need to be on time.
02:09 I have two amazing sisters, Emma and Erin.
02:11 They're happy to be here tonight.
02:12 I'm happy to have them.
02:13 And my biggest supporters growing up
02:16 and still to this very day,
02:18 my beautiful girlfriend, Gianna.
02:20 It's been an amazing ride, huh?
02:21 It's wild that we're here right now
02:22 and looking forward to many years to come.
02:25 So I love you very much.
02:26 I really wish my grandpa could be here to see this
02:28 and share it with my dad.
02:30 So thank you.
02:32 Tommy Baldwin.
02:34 Tommy was an amazing guy.
02:36 And so Tommy gave me my first start in 2012
02:39 when dad was running cup cars for him
02:41 on the Xfinity side and that opened up a ton of doors.
02:44 I'm hoping Tommy is doing the best he can right now
02:46 and hope to talk to him very soon.
02:47 But driving for Tommy,
02:49 that led me to get talking to Brad Keselowski in 2012
02:53 after an Xfinity race at Kentucky, I believe it was,
02:56 and opened the door for me to drive trucks for him,
02:59 opened the door for the Penske deal in Xfinity.
03:04 And just amazing that I got an opportunity at that time.
03:08 And I will always be thankful for Brad for doing that.
03:11 And Wayne Setterington, Jeremy Thompson at BKR,
03:14 amazing people that worked at that race shop.
03:16 And that was such a great truck team.
03:19 The Wood brothers, Eddie, Len, Leonard, Glenn,
03:22 you know, driving for you all from 2015, 2017
03:26 was an absolute dream.
03:28 I grew up loving your family, your team,
03:32 and to be able to drive for you guys for a few years
03:34 was an absolute dream come true.
03:35 To get my first win with you guys at Pocono was unbelievable
03:39 and to be a small portion of the wins that you've had,
03:43 to get you your 99th win,
03:44 just to be a small portion of that is always so special.
03:47 And to be a part of your family,
03:49 even though I'm not driving for you anymore
03:50 is always special.
03:51 And you know, Eddie gave me a coin.
03:53 They do the challenge coins every year.
03:55 So Eddie gave me a coin before the race
03:57 and I think it was good luck.
03:58 It was Glenn's coin.
04:00 And I definitely think it brought us luck
04:03 during that race.
04:03 So looking forward to you guys getting number 100.
04:06 So Roger and Kathy Penske, thank you guys.
04:10 It's like you said earlier,
04:11 it's hard to believe it's been over 10 years
04:13 since we first met and nothing more as a kid,
04:16 I wanted to do than to win you a championship
04:18 and just be successful because I was such a big fan of you,
04:22 not only in NASCAR, but in every form of motorsport
04:25 and just had such a huge respect for you and what you did
04:28 and that you stuck with me for over 10 years
04:30 has been unbelievable.
04:31 And I'll always be thankful for that.
04:32 So to be able to do things,
04:36 to accomplish things that you haven't accomplished yet,
04:38 to be a part of that,
04:38 winning the 600 and the 500 the same year,
04:40 winning back-to-back championships,
04:42 to be a part of that is just so special.
04:44 And amazing, amazing people that I have to thank too.
04:47 You know, Greg Penske, Walt Czarnecki, Tim Sindrick,
04:50 Bud Danker, Mike Nelson, Jonathan Gibson, Travis Geisser.
04:53 I mean, all those folks have given me
04:56 such great opportunities that have stuck with me
04:58 for so many years.
04:59 I'll never be able to thank them enough.
05:00 And I guess this is the best way to thank them.
05:02 So I guess I'll get into our partners now, right?
05:06 John Menard, John Menard is here.
05:08 John has been an amazing person, the whole Menard family.
05:11 We've been together since 2018 and it's been a fun ride
05:15 for all you've done in motor sports and your amazing life.
05:19 It's a pleasure to be able to be partnered with you
05:21 and to bring you the ultimate sports pinnacle is amazing
05:25 and look forward to the years to come.
05:28 So thank you and your family.
05:29 Ford Performance, Ford Motor Company,
05:32 you guys are unbelievable.
05:33 It's been a pleasure to be with you
05:36 for over 10 years with the Blue Oval family.
05:39 Congrats on two for two with the next gen
05:41 with Joey and myself.
05:43 And super congrats on sweeping the weekend
05:45 and look forward to the Dark Horse Mustang next year.
05:49 Rush H engines, Doug Yates, you have the impossible job
05:52 of trying to get bottom end and top end
05:56 when drivers complained about wanting both.
05:58 And I think every engine manufacturer will agree with me.
06:00 You have an unattainable goal, but you stick with us
06:03 and I really appreciate it and congratulations to you.
06:06 Body armor, advanced auto parts, index imaging,
06:09 Worth, Tom O'Neill is here tonight.
06:11 So thank you for being here, the Worth family.
06:13 Discount tire, won my first race with them in 2013
06:17 with Team Penske, so that's a lot of fun
06:18 to do it again 10 years later at Martinsville.
06:21 Wabash, Dent Wizard, just amazing partners.
06:24 So where's my 12 group at?
06:27 Where are my guys at?
06:29 Over there?
06:30 Make noise there and back there.
06:32 You guys are rock stars, man.
06:33 You guys are unbelievable.
06:35 It's been so much fun to work with you guys,
06:38 you know, the last handful of years.
06:39 It's been fantastic and you guys deserve it
06:42 just as much as me.
06:43 Jonathan, second year together.
06:45 It's been a fun ride so far.
06:47 We've been awesome to win some races together.
06:49 I remember when we sat down and had a beer at King Canary
06:51 and tried to figure out what we were gonna do.
06:53 And it's cool what we've done, so good job.
06:56 It's amazing, man.
06:57 Daniel Lynch, my interior guy, I did wanna shout you out
07:00 last year on the road, congrats.
07:02 Looking forward to your next chapter.
07:04 Hopefully you can relax a little bit,
07:05 probably a little bit more beer drinking time
07:06 on the weekends.
07:08 Yeah, I wanted to talk about our summer struggles.
07:10 You know, and Jonathan talked about it a little bit
07:14 beforehand that we started off the year fairly decent
07:17 and won the 600 and then we had two or three
07:20 really bad months.
07:21 And it was really, really easy to throw in the towel,
07:26 call it quits for everyone on this group,
07:28 everyone at Team Penske who were struggling.
07:31 But they didn't do that.
07:32 They dug down and they figured out
07:33 what we needed to do to be better.
07:35 And that's a group that I'm super proud to be with.
07:37 Those are the people you wanna surround yourself with.
07:40 It's people who don't complain and just get down
07:43 and they just put the work in.
07:45 And we have amazing men and women who do that,
07:48 over 400 employees at Penske, 72,000 worldwide.
07:51 They did the work and they didn't get down,
07:54 they just figured out the problem
07:55 and came up with a solution.
07:56 So this is as much your championship as it is mine.
07:58 I took a couple really hard hits this year.
08:03 So I appreciate AMR and UPMC, Dr. Mickey Collins
08:08 and the NASCAR medical staff for helping me out.
08:11 You guys really helped me out.
08:14 I was a lot worse than what I seemed
08:15 and you guys really did an amazing job, so thank you.
08:19 Also NASCAR officials, all the NASCAR personnel,
08:23 Lisa, Ben, Jim, unbelievable, Mike Helton,
08:27 it's amazing to share this with you.
08:29 So thank you for what we do.
08:30 Looking forward to many years to come.
08:33 Thank you to fans.
08:35 And one thing I wanna close out with,
08:37 sorry I've been going a long time,
08:39 but so my dad told me a funny, neat story
08:42 about when we started the playoffs.
08:44 My dad, for you guys who know my dad,
08:46 he's a very reserved guy, he doesn't talk very much.
08:49 And he was kind of the, I started saying
08:53 I wanted to be like my dad growing up.
08:55 And as a kid, I think you just wanna make your parents proud.
08:59 And so when he started kind of being
09:01 my motivational speaker through the playoffs,
09:04 he was telling me this story about the path.
09:05 He sees the path to the championship.
09:08 And he was visualizing this path
09:10 that we could go on this run and make this championship run.
09:13 And the first few races I was like,
09:15 "Ah, you know, it's dad saying dad stuff."
09:18 But as we kind of went on,
09:19 I started believing it more and more.
09:20 And we won Talladega, he said, "The path's getting bigger."
09:24 We won Martinsville, he said, "The path's lit up."
09:27 And I guess we got through the gate at Phoenix.
09:29 So just unbelievable why dad's motivation,
09:34 his talk, his help is super cool.
09:36 He visualized it and took me a while to believe it.
09:39 But fortunately we all did and it's here now.
09:42 So sorry for the long speech, I kind of lost track of time.
09:46 But thank you guys for being here.
09:47 Enjoy your Christmas.
09:48 We'll look forward to seeing you guys in LA in 24.
09:51 We do have a toast that we do at Team Penske
09:53 to close off the night, something kind of a tradition
09:57 whenever we win races over there.
09:58 So, to us and those like us, cheers. Have a good night.