Team Penske buys charter from Roush Fenway for Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford
By Nick Tylwalk
Cross having to qualify well just to make the field in 2018 off the list of worries for Ryan Blaney.
Not that there was ever much doubt, but Team Penske has ensured Ryan Blaney will be in the field for every 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.
ESPN’s Bob Pockrass reports that Penske has purchased a charter for the No. 12 Ford that Blaney will drive this season from Roush Fenway racing. Said charter was leased to JTG Daugherty Racing in 2017 (which it used on Chris Buescher’s No. 37 Ford) and as per NASCAR rules, returned to Roush Fenway for 2018. The same charter can’t be leased in two straight seasons, and with RFR not planning on expanding beyond two Cup Series cars, selling it was a logical move.
It also makes perfect sense for Penske to buy rather than lease since Blaney should be around for the long haul. The 23-year-old is both a race fan and marketer’s dream, claiming his first Cup Series victory for the legendary Wood Brothers team at Pocono last season.
He’s also arguably the most comfortable in front of a camera or a microphone of any of NASCAR’s young guns, co-hosting a popular podcast, making numerous appearances and generally serving as an all-around excellent ambassador for the sport of stock car racing.
Related Story: Ryan Blaney to guest star in Taken season 2 on NBC
Not that Penske really needed the charter. The idea behind the current charter system was to ensure that the top teams all made the field each week, something NASCAR’s old qualifying rules didn’t necessarily do. In reality, though, the top series rarely has more entrants than spots in the field these days — even after reducing the size of a “full” field from 43 cars to 40 — meaning there are only a handful of races where drivers have to qualify on speed.
Next: Interview: Ryan Blaney talks Star Wars, superheroes and Comic-Con
Alas, one of them is typically the Daytona 500, and it wouldn’t be right to leave Penske’s newest addition hanging with any chance of not making that race. That won’t be an issue now, allowing Blaney and his new team to focus on finding speed before the 2018 NASCAR season revs to life next month.