NASCAR has had iconic father-son duos. Be it Bobby and Davey Allison, Bill and Chase Elliot, David and Larry Pearson, and Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr, the list is long. From afar, it feels like a privilege to have a family member as a famous racer.

But with their name comes a lot of pressure. The pressure of filling the shoes of the greats that their parents were. On the recent NASCAR round table, Kyle Petty asked Pocono winner Ryan Blaney’s father, Dave Blaney, about the pressures he had living up to his own legendary father’s name. 

Did Ryan Blaney’s father face legacy pressure too?

Legacy surely is a double-edged sword. NASCAR driver and street racer Dave Blaney‘s father, Lou Blaney, was a legendary sprint car and Big Block Modifieds driver.

In 1978, Blaney started racing DIRT-sanctioned big-block modified stock cars, scoring over 200 wins in that class from 1978 to 2002. His Modifieds career began in 1978 and continued until his retirement in 2005. He also had more than 200 modified victories. According to Dave, “He (Lou) hated to lose, actually, despised it. The one thing that truly defines him is that he was a winner.” Lou continued to drive sprints until 1981, when his oldest son, Dave, took over the ride.

Living up to such greatness must be really challenging and the pressure must be insane. However, on the recent NASCAR Insiders Round Table presented by Goodyear, Dave had a different story.

He said, “I look back and not at all and I don’t know why. Maybe I should have.” Perhaps because that was an era free of social media, where every move of a racer is watched and criticized. Dave Blaney reminisced about the old days and how he got into racing, “I remember not even bugging my dad to put me in a car. I was happy just going with him and watching him run, but it turned into me driving, and then for me, it was just run as hard as you could run. Didn’t care about anything. I didn’t care about pressure.”

Keeping up with the Blaney legacy, Dave went on to become one of the most respected and successful sprint car drivers in history. He has won championships with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and the USAC Silver Crown Series. He joined NASCAR in 1998, In a 17-season-long career, he couldn’t bag a single win. In 2018, he returned to sprint racing and continues to race. Dave’s younger brother, Dale Blaney, is also a Sprint Racing Champion. He was inducted into the Sprint Racing Hall of Fame in 2016.

Coming from such a rich family history of racing, Ryan has carried it forward. What his father couldn’t achieve in NASCAR, he did; the Penske driver, has 12 career cup wins since 2017. Blaney ended last year on a high note by winning the NASCAR Cup championship. In the 2024 season, he has bagged 2 wins and is currently ranked 7th in points. The #12 driver did not have it easy as he started his career. 

Blaney had his share of pressure

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Ryan Blaney won the recent Pocono race. In his successful career so far, he’s faced his share of pressures. Ryan remembers the initial days, “I think the only pressure I felt was from outside when Harrison (Burton) and I were coming into it in the early 2010s. The media was growing heavily and they tried to put more pressure on us than anything.”  

Ryan went on to say the pressure receded as he won races. But naturally, a rookie in the sport will feel the pressure. However, as he matures and progresses in his career, things become better. Surely, the double-edged sword has a good side too.

Growing up amongst racing greats must have been a great learning and inspiration, Blaney said in a past interview on NBC Sports, “We’re a family of racers, Growing up wanting to be like my dad [Dave Blaney], growing up at the racetrack, watching dad race. … Dad was my main influence.”

Blaney’s Pocono win gave Team Penske a clean sweep. Can he carry forward this momentum to Indianapolis? Only time will tell.