NASCAR’s Ryan Blaney Launches New Whiskey Brand

Race car driver Ryan Blaney has been on a tear the last few seasons, bagging top honors and a NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2023, followed by another excellent season last year as runner-up for 2024.

But the laid-back 31-year-old racing star said in an interview this week that he’s always wanted to launch a business outside of racing. Ideally, he said, he wanted his new venture to be based around something he enjoys off the track.

Two weeks ago, the Team Penske driver announced on social media the launch of his own line of bourbon-style whiskey, called Ten Runner.

“I’ve always enjoyed being a whiskey drinker and a bourbon drinker, and I wanted to do something adventurous outside of my profession,” Blaney said during a Zoom interview on Wednesday. “I also wanted it to be something I am passionate about in a unique industry, and watch it grow.”

He joked that in coming up with his new brand called Ten Runner, “I didn’t want it to just be ‘Ryan Blaney’s racing bourbon,’ or something. Letting it have its own identity was super important to me.”

Blaney said that the name Ten Runner “comes from my family’s tradition, and the number 10 is significant in my family’s history.”

Blaney, a third-generation race car driver, is the son of former NASCAR Cup Series driver Dave Blaney and the grandson of Lou Blaney, a modified dirt track racer who competed in the late 1950s and again in the 1980s through 2002.

He explained, saying that his grandfather, father, and uncle all raced a No. 10 car throughout their careers. Blaney himself also raced cars bearing the No. 10 earlier in his career. “The ‘runner’ part of the name,” he added, “kind of pays homage to those who ‘ran liquor’ during the days of Prohibition.”

The 103-proof, 51.5% ABV concoction is said, on Ten Runner’s website, to be “hand-crafted and handed down” in Kentucky.

“I didn’t want my name directly tied to the label,” Blaney added, “but I wanted to be something that I liked, that tastes good and that other people enjoy.”

When I asked Blaney how he takes his whiskey, he said that he “doesn’t mixes or do cocktails,” but most often prefers his whiskey neat, and sometimes starts off with a chilled glass or a simple block of ice in the glass. In crafting the whiskey to his specifications, Blaney said that he sought out an expert in distillation who had a track record of creating great recipes for other whiskeys in the past.

“Ten Runner, a blend of a few things. Our distiller (whom Blaney wouldn’t name) had us sit in on tasting sessions, where we’d blend different things.”

Describing the process, Blaney said, “We’d try a stronger proof, or add more rye, mash mixes, and so on. With his imagination and my input—I like higher proof—it was a long process, but we came up with something I like, that we thought was tasty.”

The Ten Runner brand’s website also states that its brand’s mission is “Honoring legends, building legacies.”

Related story: Ryan Blaney boosts fight against Alzheimer’s

Blaney also talked about the venture as a business opportunity, but as a new experience in an industry he knew little about at first.

“It was a new experience, a learning process, and a lot of fun. I’m no expert in distilling or mixology, but I like my whiskey with a little bite on the tongue. I knew we had to put together something that wasn’t too overwhelming, finding the middle ground.”

Blaney also said he likes a “smoky” taste, and he and his team worked in oak barrels to help shape Ten Runner’s finish and taste.

The end result of experimenting with different distillation tactics and flavors, Blaney said, yielded ten different variants of whiskey that were eventually narrowed down to one final product.

Available for sale on the company’s website, Ten Runner offers a taste that is on the stronger side for bourbon, while furnishing notes of caramel, almond, and apple, without too sweet a finish.

Coolest guy on the track?

Blaney debuted in his first NASCAR Cup Series race back in 2014, and since then, he has built an impressive career, with 15 Cup Series wins and his first championship in 2023. Most recently, Blaney won the Coca-Cola Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on August 23, 2025.

But Blaney has also become a fan favorite, perhaps because of his down-to-earth personality and relatable ways, while also coming off as one of the more easygoing racers on the track.

When I asked Blaney how he keeps so cool, he said that on race day, he can compartmentalize the task of racing to win.

“I’ve always said I have two different mentalities, and that I’m a very reserved, laid back person outside the race car. But that we athletes have a sort of multiple personality disorder,” he joked.

“When you get in the car, you’re a different person, because it’s a competition. Sure, when I’m in the car, I am a different person, but I try to keep the same traits that I have always had.”

Blaney summed it up by saying that race car drivers, like basketball and football players, have a switch. “When it’s race day, and you’ve done it enough, the switch goes on. I definitely have times when I get fired up. But then I race, and afterward, I’m able to just hang out.”

And, regarding his laid-back look, Blaney admitted that most of the time his hair is longer than that most of the guys in NASCAR.

“My hair was definitely getting long for a while, not as much right now. But I’ve definitely thought about going all Troy Palomalu for a while.”

Read Frye’s interviews with F1’s Lando Norris and action star John Cena.

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