Having now won a Cup Series championship for Team Penske, Ryan Blaney has a request to run by team bosses Roger Penske and Tim Cindric.
Now the NASCAR champion wants to race in the Indianapolis 500.
Apparently, speaking on the subject during the Champions Week celebration in Downtown Nashville, Blaney says this isn’t the first time it has come up either. With Kyle Larson set to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend in 2024, Blaney wants to run The Double too.
“Honestly, it’s something that’s bounced around my mind for a couple of years,” Blaney said. “It’s something I feel like…if you could do the double, that’s cool. Larson is doing it next year. That’s going to be great.
“I’ve poked around that idea with [Penske] for a couple of years now, and I might have to bring it back up, so we’ll see where that goes.”
Blaney is a third-generation racer, with both his dad and grandfather sharing a dirt Sprint Car background, but Ryan Blaney has never raced anything other than Stock Cars. His father, Dave, was a World of Outlaws champion who transitioned to Stock Cars.
For the younger Blaney, this is a matter of wanting to prove a degree of versatility.
“I just feel like there’s not many people that can do the double,” Blaney said. “It’s a pretty short list and it would be neat to just do it. I have respect for all forms of motorsports, so I think you want to go experience something like that. I think at my age it would be kind of perfect to do it, but I just think the nostalgia of it and to be able to say you ran, hopefully, 1,100 miles in one day on the racetrack is a cool feat.
“It’s cool for Kyle [Larson] being able to do it and maybe one day I’ll get the privilege too.”
The Double has previously been contested by Tony Stewart, John Andretti, Robby Gordon, and Kurt Busch have all entered both races in the same day.
Penske owns both the IndyCar Series that sanctions the Indianapolis 500 and Team Penske which fields cars in both disciplines. He can make it happen if he wants to.
“Blaney said to me at some point over the last several weeks that he would like to go to Indy,” Penske said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, slow down a little bit.’ We’re good to have everybody come to Indy, but if we can have the double and really play up Memorial Day at both Charlotte and Indianapolis, it’ll be great.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.