DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Ryan Blaney is not a driver who routinely does a burnout after winning Cup Series races, yet he made an exception Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway.
It certainly helped that Blaney finished a race at the superspeedway after being hooked into the wall numerous times in recent seasons, but the former Cup Series champion had many more reasons for switching up his post-win routine.
"I was fired up, man," Blaney said in response to a question from AltDriver. "Multiple reasons. Whenever you win at these speedways, it pumps you up. The last two laps we had was pretty awesome, like how we came from 14th or wherever we were up to get the lead.
"I didn't know if we got (the win) initially at first, and yeah, the burnout stuff is kind of fun. It's so cool to win here, and it was a big night."
A Ryan Blaney burnout is like Sasquatch. You have to capture footage when you get the rare opportunity. pic.twitter.com/ZYkUbhw5Qn
— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) August 24, 2025
Why doesn't Blaney choose to perform burnouts? It goes back to a conversation with Dale Inman. As Blaney tells it, the championship-winning crew chief pulled him aside once and said, "Hey, you don't see the winner of the Kentucky Derby get off his horse and start beating the shit out of it."
Well, Blaney beat his proverbial horse after winning in a four-wide photo finish at the World Center of Racing and jumping all the way up to second in the Cup Series standings.
The scheme on the car also made the win -- and the burnout -- far more special. Blaney finally won a race in the black Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang after crashing in it so many times before.
"Also, I mainly did it for Advance Auto Parts because that paint scheme at speedways has been cursed," Blaney added. "I've gotten right hooked with that scheme more times than I can count. The CEO, Shane (O'Kelly), told me, 'I think we've paid our dues with that paint scheme at speedways.'
"He's like, 'I've got a really good feeling tonight.' And it was super cool to pay that off and have their whole team here. It was a big night. It was a lot of things culminating, and I thought it deserved one."