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I hate that people caught that. Sometimes I have a short temper and it sort of bursts in the car,” Blaney says
As the laps wound down on the last race of the 2023 NASCAR season, cameras appeared to have caught Ryan Blaney giving fellow competitor Ross Chastain the finger.
I might have … briefly,” Blaney, 29, laughs during an exclusive interview with PEOPLE about the gesture, which was caught on his in-car camera during the season-ending race at Phoenix Raceway
Am I ashamed of it? Yes. I hate that people caught that. Sometimes I have a short temper and it sort of bursts in the car,” he says. “I just got to get it out and then I feel better about it.”
Blaney ultimately ended up coming home as the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion for the first time in his racing career on Nov. 5. But in the days following his achievement, much of the focus has been on the temper the North Carolina native sometimes displays once he’s strapped into his race car.
I’m similar to my father in that aspect,” says Blaney, whose father, Dave Blaney, found himself racing full time on the NASCAR circuit starting in 1998, when his son was just 4 years old. “He and I are very close in terms of our personalities. We are pretty quiet guys most of the time, but we’re fiery about what we do. When you’re passionate about what you love, sometimes that boils over.”
It’s just one of those things that I try to get better at,” he explains. “It’s hard to do for me. I just care about it so much… it’s something I’m working on, but it’s hard to get those things out of you.”
However, there is a softer side to Blaney, which was evident when he realized he was a NASCAR champion.
