Fresh off first championship, Ryan Blaney 'ready to get back behind the wheel'

Ryan Blaney is ready to get back into a race car.

A month after winning his first NASCAR Cup Series title, Blaney will be one of six drivers testing Tuesday and Wednesday at Phoenix Raceway in a test designed to explore ways to improve racing on short tracks and road courses.

"I am ready to get back behind the wheel," Blaney said last week on the day he was celebrated as the champion at the NASCAR awards ceremony. "I think that will be nice. ... It will actually let me focus on doing productive things for a little bit, so I am excited.

"Hopefully we find some good stuff at that test. I know we've got a lot of things to try and hopefully, we can improve that package a little bit."

[Related: NASCAR 2023 awards: Best driver, top rookie, biggest surprise, most improved]

While Blaney has thrived at Phoenix — he has finishes of fourth, second, second and second in his last four races there — and won at the shortest track on the circuit (Martinsville) last year, he and Team Penske would like to see some overall improvement.

Blaney teammate Joey Logano, who won the 2022 Cup title, finished 12th in the standings. Austin Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 winner, failed to make the playoffs and finished 24th overall. Harrison Burton, in his second year at Penske affiliate Wood Brothers Racing, was 31st.

"You win one and you hope you can win it [again] because you start all over again," team owner Roger Penske said about the back-to-back titles. "They don't give you an extra lap ahead of everybody after you win one. ...  It was the downforce tracks that we weren't there, but once we got to Phoenix, I think we had a package that was very competitive." 

The 86-year-old team owner has a racing empire that includes a heavy investment in open-wheel cars as the owner of a three-car team, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy Racing League. On that end, he is amping up for a pivotal year that includes Kyle Larson competing in the Indianapolis 500 (and then flying to Charlotte for NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600).

Larson, the 2021 Cup champion and known for his versatility, drives for Hendrick Motorsports and Rick Hendrick asked Penske if Larson could drive one of the Penske cars in that race. Penske said he didn't have room, but Larson and HMS worked a deal with Arrow McLaren.

"He comes with a tremendous amount of talent," Penske said. "And it's something that he wants to do. ... If we can have the double and really play up Memorial Day at both Charlotte and Indianapolis, it'll be great.

"The interest from the fan base with him coming, we can see it already in our ticket sales. He'll be a great asset to Indianapolis and the 500."

As much talk there is about Larson helping boost Penske's big event, what about Blaney? 

"Blaney said to me at some point over the last several weeks that he would like to go to Indy," Penske said. "I was like, ‘Whoa, slow down a little bit.'"

Blaney doesn't have the experience in sprint cars, which many believe is pivotal for an Indianapolis 500 effort. He knows that could be a work in progress.

"It's something that's bounced around my mind for a couple years," Blaney said. "It's something I feel like is if you could do the double that's cool. Larson is doing it next year. That's going to be great.

"I've poked around that idea with R.P. for a couple years now and I might have to bring it back up, so we'll see where that goes."

For now, Blaney has his stock-car ride to focus on, and that starts this week. Joining him at the test will be RFK Racing's Chris Buescher (Buescher and Blaney are the Fords at the test), Larson and Spire Motorsports' Corey LaJoie (Chevrolets) and Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell and Legacy Motor Club's Erik Jones (Toyotas).

"You're just looking for what path we can continue to go down to try to help it out, so hopefully we can find some of those things," Blaney said.

Larson said he believes this is the first time he has participated in a test such as this with the focus on improving the racing (rather than a tire test or a general team test). After time to initially get their cars set up to be fast, NASCAR will give the teams a testing plan with various changes and likely run a series of mini races to see if they can pass.

Drivers are expected to test different aero pieces. They will also test a transaxle that could eliminate shifting. And they will have the tires with the thicker tread that NASCAR used in the last couple of races this year.

"I just hope that there's something that we learn from it that's an improvement because in the other ones that they've tried, it seems like there's a lot of hope, and then you leave and it was actually worse," Larson said. "Hopefully we can find something that's a little bit better."

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.