How does NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney keep himself fit in summer races? Penske driver explains

Ryan Blaney recently spoke about his workout routine in the upcoming stretch of the season. One of the challenges faced by a full-time driver competing in NASCAR is keeping an optimum level of fitness in the variety of conditions and environments the schedule has.

At this stage, NASCAR is heading into the summer races, which could potentially mean that drivers have to alter their workout regiments to adapt to the weather. However, Ryan Blaney isn't one of those to change their regiments with the changing weather.

Ahead of this Sunday's race at WWT Raceway, when the defending Cup champion was asked whether he has a workout routine that he sticks to at this stage of the season, Blaney revealed it's the same for him year-round.

"I feel like I'm kind of a, 'If it's not broke, don't fix it,' kind of thing. Found something that works for me handful of years ago that's really done me well as far as being fine through these races no matter how hot or whatever. I don't train differently for summer months than for March races. It's just whatever keeps you good and sticks you in your routine," Blaney said.

In an interview with Tom Segura last year, Ryan Blaney shed some light on the "different kind of fit" NASCAR drivers have compared to other sports.

"All of us or none of us are really big. We’re all fairly short, fairly skinny, lean. You don’t see a bunch of us buff because you don’t really need to be. It’s a different kind of requirement for what we do," he said.

The Penske driver claimed that for a NASCAR driver, the focus in workouts is mostly on heart rate, shoulders, and core. As for what he does, Ryan Blaney revealed he works a lot on keeping his heart rate in check in extreme environments while he's tired and losing focus.

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NASCAR's unique fitness requirements can have people mistake Ryan Blaney for a computer programmer

In 2021, Director of Sports Performance at Penske Racing, Jon Rowan, shared his insights on driver fitness and workouts in NASCAR. Rowan claimed that one of the things they focus on in training with drivers is getting them to be calm and make the right decisions in a matter of milliseconds in extremely high-stakes situations while their heart rate is up and they are overstimulated. He said (as quoted by AdvanceAutoParts) :

“When our drivers are in the car and things are happening around them in milliseconds, not only are they able to process it, but if they get overstimulated, they can back it back down and they'll make good decisions," Rowan said.

He mentioned that if fans were to see drivers train, they'd be "amazed" by the hard work they put into their workouts because the results of it aren't too evident, considering "not one of them looks like an athlete."

Rowan claimed that if Ryan Blaney walked into a room and someone didn't recognize him from his NASCAR background, they might mistake him for a "computer programmer."

Having said that, Rowan also added that NASCAR drivers work harder than anybody he knows, and their mental toughness "is out of control."