NASCAR Champ Buys Into Ohio Racetrack

NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney’s newest investment is a dirt racetrack in Ohio that has been in his family for generations, and he plans to update the facility with an aim of making the sport more accessible and appealing to young fans, he exclusively tells Front Office Sports.

Blaney is buying a one-third stake in the Sharon Raceway, which is about to begin its 96th season in operation on May 10. He declined to share financial details. The deal comes as the NASCAR Cup Series travels this weekend to the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Würth 400, which Blaney will compete in.

His father, former NASCAR driver Dave Blaney, will remain as one of three partners, with Pennsylvania-based businessman—and also racecar driver—Will Thomas III rounding out the new ownership group. Dave Blaney, who grew up roughly five miles from the track, invested in it in 2002. His father, and Ryan’s grandfather, the late Lou Blaney, was part-owner of the track before that.

“Growing up, I remember running around there, answering phones and selling programs and stuff, so it was really neat that the opportunity came up,” Ryan Blaney tells FOS. 

Blaney, 31, won the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2023 and last year earned an estimated $1.9 million racing for Team Penske.

He doesn’t just view the racetrack as a family heirloom, though. It’s an investment that will require capital, time, attention and improvements. He intends to use his position as a role model to inspire a younger generation of potential drivers. He says the ownership group has some “good ideas floating around,” including investing more money into upgrades, putting up new facilities and even offering ride-arounds with younger kids so they can experience what it’s like to race around the track (at a much slower speed than professional racecar drivers usually go).

“How do you show that younger kid a cool time, a good experience to where they are really like ‘man, I want to be a racecar driver when I grow up?’” Blaney says. “Whatever you can do to hook them.”

The Sharon Speedway is just the latest investment for Blaney, who tells FOS that his job as a professional racecar driver has put him in the “fortunate” position to meet people and companies he has gotten involved and invested with. His portfolio also includes sports drink company Body Armor, real estate, and more, and he has signed on with countless companies, including Chipotle—which for a time offered a custom burrito bowl called “The Ryan Blaney Bowl”— and Range Leather Co.

“That stuff is important to me because I’m not gonna race forever,” he says. 

Blaney will also be featured on the upcoming second season of the Netflix series Full Speed, which comes out May 7. He was a significant focus in the first season.

“It’s neat to show the inner workings of our sport,” he tells FOS.

He says Netflix did a good job showing all the highs and lows of the sport, adding that the series helps make NASCAR drivers seem relatable, especially to younger people he is hoping to inspire to become the next generation of racecar drivers.

“I think it’s been a good hit for not only the core NASCAR fans but we attracted a lot of new eyes,” he says. 

In 2023, NASCAR signed a seven-year rights deal worth a total of $7.7 billion with Fox, NBC, Amazon Prime Video, and Warner Bros. Discovery that runs from this year through 2031. Earlier this year, its EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin averaged 4.1 million viewers on Fox—double the average viewership for Luka Dončić’s Lakers debut game on Feb. 10.