“Kid is quick as can be”: Joey Logano on how Ryan Blaney matched his raw talent with ‘exceptional’ race craft worthy of a champion

Joey Logano praised his Team Penske teammate and 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney for showing an exceptional display of racing skills in the last seven races of the playoffs.

In the last seven races, Blaney registered two wins, two runner-up finishes, and a top-10 finish. It was Team Penske Racing’s back-to-back titles in the Cup Series as Logano secured it in 2022.

Joey Logano was impressed with the amount of speed Blaney has shown in his young career. Logano believes that with the 2023 championship triumph, Blaney will have a lot of confidence in himself and he will be a tough competitor to beat for a long time to come.

During the NASCAR Awards, Logano said (via racer.com):

“We’ve all seen the amount of speed he’s had his whole career, like just raw speed. The kid is quick as can be, but it seemed like it took a minute for the race craft to meet up to the talent that he has and really, I think the last seven weeks of what he was able to put together was exceptional. (It was) really, really good.”

“Putting them both together now, I’m telling you, he’s going to be tough to beat for a long time. Now that he’s got confidence on his side and he’s done it already, he’s going to be tough for a long time. And he’s so young, obviously. So that’ll be a tough one to compete against for a long time,” Logano added.

Ryan Blaney joins the impressive list of Cup Series winners, he still has a lot of work to do to match Joey Logano. The #22 Ford driver is the only active two-time Cup champion in the garage alongside Kyle Busch in the series. Being the champion came with a lot of perks but there is also responsibilities that came with it.

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Ryan Blaney is yet to receive NASCAR Cup Series champion’s journal from his own teammate Joey Logano

The NASCAR Champion's Journal is a book that the previous season Cup Series champion who had possession of the journal all season, writes a message and presents it to the newly crowned champion. The tradition was started by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson in 2010.

NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Johnson after winning his first title passed the journal to 2011 champion Tony Stewart.

Stewart then passed the journal to the 2012 champion Brad Keselowski and the tradition continues till today. So, now last year’s champion Joey Logano is supposed to give a journal to the newly crowned champion and his teammate Ryan Blaney.