Ryan Blaney admits that he is ‘ASHAMED’ of giving Ross Chastain the bird during Cup finale at Phoenix

Ryan Blaney secured his maiden NASCAR Cup series title in 2023.

Ryan Blaney (#12) and Ross Chastain (#1) [via IMAGO]

Team Penske Racing’s Ryan Blaney won his maiden NASCAR Cup Series title at Phoenix Raceway after finishing the season finale race at P2 behind Ross Chastain. He completed Ford’s sweep of all three national series and helped Roger Penske to secure his first back-to-back Cup title, in a year they have struggled to be contenders in a lot of races.

The battle between Chastain and Blaney in the final stage of the finale was a controlled chaos. The duo went hard at each other in the final laps but both were racing keeping in mind the fact that an incident would be catastrophic. The Trackhouse Racing driver was able to get the short-fused Blaney frustrated.

He responded by showing the No:1 Chevy driver the middle finger during the race. Now in a recent interview, Blaney admitted that he is ashamed of what he has done on the day. He said that it is a way for him to get out of all the frustration around the incidents and added that he hates he was caught by cameras.

Am I ashamed of it? Yes. I hate that people caught that. Sometimes I have a short temper and it sort of bursts in the car. I just got to get it out and then I feel better about it.

Blaney told People Magazine.

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Ryan Blaney got the short temper from his father

Blaney pointed out that, he shares a lot of similarities with his father in terms of personalities. He pointed out that he and his father Dave Blaney is fiery about what they do and otherwise they are pretty quiet guy. The temper is because of his passion and love for the sport.

Dave Blaney and Ryan Blnaney at Pocono, 2013 August 3 (Via IMAGO)

I'm similar to my father in that aspect. He and I are very close in terms of our personalities. We are pretty quiet guys most of the time, but we're fiery about what we do. When you're passionate about what you love, sometimes that boils over.

Dave Blaney had a mixed career in NASCAR. He has started over 400 races in the top tier but unlike his son wasn’t able to win any top tier. He did a couple of wins in the second tier. Blaney was able to make his father with the championship, as it was the same dream his father raced for decades ago.

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#About the Author

Justin P Joy

(5240 Articles Published)

Justin P Joy is a Motorsports writer and editor at FirstSportz. He has been a motorsport journalist since 2020 and has published over 4500 articles. Justin has extensively covered two NASCAR, Formula One, and Moto GP seasons for FirstSportz. He has invested more than a decade of his life on Motorsports, first as a fan and later as a dedicated writer. Justin’s in-depth knowledge of Motorsports and his experience as a fan make his writing resonate with most racing fans worldwide. Justin's love for racing started when he discovered Moto GP at the age of 8. That love later guided him into the world of Formula 1. He fell in love with NASCAR after watching Tom Cruise’s “Days of Thunder” and has been an avid follower of the premier stock car racing series since. He has also been investing his time to exploring WEC, WRC, Formula E, Extreme E, and IndyCar in a bid to deeply understand the culture and history of Motorsports to present a unique perspective to the fans.

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