Ryan Blaney was lately noticed handing the checkered flag to a younger fan after his Nashville triumph — a gesture that has turn into an indicator of his post-race routine. This isn’t new territory for the Staff Penske driver; he’s made a behavior of capping his wins by gifting the checkered flag to a baby within the stands, a small however highly effective gesture that has come to outline his reference to followers.
Talking on NASCAR’s The Day After, Blaney shared the origins of the custom, revealing it started in 2017. He defined that whereas drivers spend the race remoted within the cockpit, the second the checkered flag waves, they’re met with a wave of cheers, questions, and celebration.
Within the midst of that chaos, Blaney felt compelled to return the vitality, sharing it immediately with a younger fan who confirmed as much as be a part of the second.
“I need to simply give this to a child,” Blaney mentioned. “I attempt to discover a child in my shirt. But when I don’t, I’ll simply choose a random child out and attempt to make a reminiscence that hopefully lasts a lifetime.”
He added that the gesture stems from his personal reminiscences of going to races along with his household, soaking within the expertise, and pulling for his favourite drivers from the stands. Handing off the flag, for him, is a private solution to give one thing again.
The custom first took root greater than 9 years in the past at Dover Worldwide Speedway, the place Blaney claimed an Xfinity Collection win. That very same 12 months, NBC shifted its format, selecting to interview race winners on the entrance stretch instantly after burnouts moderately than in Victory Lane. The change created the right setting for Blaney’s fan-first gesture to take maintain.
Whereas he now tries to discover a younger fan sporting his merchandise, the early days of the custom weren’t so particular. Actually, after his 2018 Cup win on the Charlotte Roval, Blaney gave the checkered flag to a child donning a Kyle Busch shirt — proof that the reminiscence mattered greater than the emblem.
Blaney subsequent heads to Michigan, a observe the place he final discovered victory lane in 2021, earlier than the Subsequent Gen period started. Since then, he’s posted a top-five and one other top-10 end on the two-mile oval, although final 12 months’s run resulted in P18. Whether or not he can carry the momentum from Nashville into the upcoming weekend might be an attention-grabbing storyline.
