NASCAR racing is a highly competitive sport that requires drivers to push their limits and boundaries every time they hit the racetrack. It’s a job like none other, as it brings both the best and worst of the driver’s personality. While other ball-stick sports do not promote showing character and personality, NASCAR, on the other hand, wants its drivers to do so. This is why the fans have so much to follow.

However, in doing so, the drivers develop a tendency to strike a balance between their two personalities. One that they carry with them in their day-to-day lives, and another, the more expressive one, inside the race car. Although it can be hard to identify the drivers who wear this hat of dual personalities, Ryan Blaney isn’t one of them.

Ryan Blaney explains why he switches into a different character inside the race car

Those who have listened to Blaney’s team radio during the race are aware of how in the zone and invested the driver is. At times, he does lose his cool, and more often than not, it is because he was involved in a scuffle with one of his rival drivers. However, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion believes it’s not just him but multiple drivers who flip a switch and enter a different mode when running races.

“Yes, I feel like a lot of drivers and athletes have like a bipolar, split personality or something, right? You are in job mode; you’re in competitive mode, right? So I am a completely different person behind the wheel. I don’t know why. I gotta learn how to turn it on and off, that’s for sure.” Blaney said this in an interview with TODAY via their YouTube channel.

It’s not just Blaney; even Brad Keselowski felt that he had such tendencies during his early days of racing. Especially when he was locking horns against the likes of Jeff Gordon. “I believe every great race car driver is bipolar. If you are the same person you are out of the racecar, you’re either a terrible person or you’re not a very good racecar driver. If I did stuff I did in the racecar outside the racecar, I would be in jail,” he was quoted saying this via the Sporting News.

Blaney is just like Keselowski in the sense that he hardly backs out of a challenge on the track. So it’s not surprising to see similarities between the two, and while they may have a split personality, it certainly has faired them well as far as winning trophies are concerned. And Blaney will put this trait to use this weekend for the Cup race at Pocono.

Can Blaney repeat the exploits of his maiden Cup win this Sunday?

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Interestingly, the Penske star’s first Cup win came at the Tricky Triangle back in 2017 with Wood Brothers Racing. But ever since he’s hoped inside the Next Gen car, his results on the racetrack have been dismal. In his last two starts, he finished the race on the tail end of the field, finishing P33 and P30.

But this Sunday’s race provides him with an opportunity to gain more ground and an advantage before the playoffs begin. He already won at Iowa, locking himself in the knockout rounds, but he has been unlucky on multiple occasions. Missing out on the race win by millimeters at Atlanta and running out of fuel with a victory in sight at Gateway.

Although, Pocono might not have been his strong suit, the No. 12 Ford Mustang has shown good speed this season. So, it does put him in the conversation to contest for the win in this weekend’s race.

The Fords are notorious for staging a late comeback in the playoffs. But with the way this season is shaping up, Blaney and his team will have to adopt a new strategy, or they could find themselves playing catch-up.