Blaney began in quarter midget racing, winning his first race at the age of nine. He also competed in Bandolero cars at a young age. Moving to Legends cars at twelve, he won the Lowe's Motor Speedway Summer Shootout and the Young Lions Winter Heat Points Championship, along with three divisions of the Carolina Fall Nationals in quarter midgets, and the Concord Speedway Young Lions Winter Heat Points Championship in Bandoleros.
At twelve, Blaney debuted in late model racing at Orange County Speedway. In 2009, at fifteen, he entered the Pro All Stars Series-sanctioned South Super Late Model Series, finishing second in points and winning Rookie of the Year; he also finished third in PASS national points. He won the Eastern Grand Nationals in Huntsville, Alabama and the Gasoline Alley National Championship quarter midget event in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In 2010 Blaney scored his first career win in the PASS South series at Dillon Motor Speedway, added wins at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and Newport Speedway, and finished second in the championship again. He also won the CRA-sanctioned Southern Six Pack series championship. In 2011 he won two PASS South races and the series championship. In 2012 he returned to the PASS Super Late Model Series in the Carswell Motorsports No. 98 car.
In 2011, Blaney debuted in the ARCA Racing Series and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and East, recording top-ten finishes in every start across the three series. He won his first career NASCAR race in the K&N Pro Series West season finale at Phoenix International Raceway, winning by over two seconds in his only series start.
In 2012, Blaney ran six K&N Pro Series East races for family-owned DB Racing. He also signed with Tommy Baldwin Racing to drive six NASCAR Nationwide Series races starting at Richmond International Raceway, qualifying in the top ten on debut and finishing seventh. In July 2012 he announced a deal with Team Penske for a minimum of three Nationwide Series races, starting at Iowa Speedway. He also ran selected Camping World Truck Series races for Brad Keselowski Racing, finishing sixth on his series debut at Bristol Motor Speedway. On September 15, 2012, Blaney won his first Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway; at eighteen years, eight months, and fifteen days, he was the youngest winner in series history, breaking the previous record of twenty years and eighteen days set by Kyle Busch in 2005.
In 2013 Blaney drove the full Truck Series schedule for Brad Keselowski Racing, finishing sixth in points and winning Rookie of the Year. He won the series pole at Kentucky Speedway in June and his second Truck race at Pocono Raceway in August. That September at Kentucky he led 96 of 200 laps to win his first Nationwide Series race, beating Austin Dillon and Matt Crafton. He was the only race winner in the 2013 Nationwide season without any Sprint Cup experience.
In 2014, Blaney drove the No. 29 truck full-time for Brad Keselowski Racing. At Dover he came within 0.5 seconds of Kyle Busch for the win. He won his second Nationwide race in August at Bristol Motor Speedway, beating Busch in a green-white-checkered finish. He also won his first Truck race of 2014 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, edging German Quiroga by 0.49 seconds in a photo finish.
In 2015, Blaney drove selected Xfinity Series races, winning at Iowa and finishing second at Kentucky. He also achieved his second top-ten finish in the Sprint Cup at Kansas, finishing seventh in the Hollywood Casino 400.
Blaney made his Cup Series debut in 2014, starting at Kansas Speedway in the re-opened No. 12 for Team Penske. His second start came at Talladega. In August 2014, it was announced he would drive twenty Sprint Cup races for Wood Brothers Racing in the No. 21 Ford in 2015. He picked up his first top ten at Talladega in the GEICO 500, running as high as second and finishing fourth, and ended the year with fifteen starts in total.
Blaney began his first full-time Cup Series season in 2016 with Wood Brothers, despite the team being excluded from NASCAR's new Charter system. He finished in the top ten at Las Vegas, Phoenix, Talladega, Dover, and Pocono, with a best finish of fifth at Kansas. He lost the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award to Chase Elliott.
In 2017 Wood Brothers' charter situation was resolved when Go Fas Racing loaned their charter to the No. 21 team, guaranteeing Blaney a spot in every race. At the Daytona 500 he charged from fifth on the final lap to finish second to Kurt Busch. In June he won his first career Cup race at the Axalta presents the Pocono 400, passing Kyle Busch with ten laps to go and holding off Kevin Harvick. He also won his first Cup Series pole at Kansas. Entering the playoffs ninth in points, Blaney made it to the Round of 8 before being eliminated at Phoenix and finishing ninth in the season standings — the highest for a Wood Brothers driver since Morgan Shepherd finished sixth in 1994. In July 2017, Blaney announced he would move to Team Penske's No. 12 car for 2018.
Blaney won his Can-Am Duel and led the most laps at the Daytona 500 (114 laps, over half the race), but finished seventh after late contact with Kurt Busch. He won poles at Las Vegas and Pocono and recorded five top fives and twelve top tens in the regular season, making the playoffs without a win. At the Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Roval, leaders Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson wrecked each other on the final lap; Blaney passed both to score his first win with Penske and advance to the Round of 12, before being eliminated after the fall Kansas race. He finished tenth in the season standings.
Blaney remained consistent in the top ten in points. He won the Talladega fall race in a photo finish of 0.007 seconds over Ryan Newman, advancing to the Round of 8. He was eliminated at Phoenix and finished the season in the top ten.
On the final lap of the 2020 Daytona 500, Blaney gave a push to leader Ryan Newman, sending Newman into the outside wall in a violent crash. Blaney lost the race to Denny Hamlin in what was the second-closest finish in Daytona 500 history. Blaney later said speaking with Newman after his release from hospital helped him come to terms with the incident. He won the GEICO 500 at Talladega, defeating Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by 0.007 seconds in his second photo-finish win at the track. He was eliminated in the Round of 16 and finished the season ninth in points.
Blaney won at Atlanta and Michigan for his fifth and sixth career Cup victories, respectively. The Atlanta win was emotionally significant — it came twenty years after his father had nearly won the same race before a broken wheel cost him the victory. Blaney then won the final race of the regular season at Daytona International Speedway, giving him back-to-back wins and a third victory in the 2021 regular season. He entered the playoffs second-seeded behind Kyle Larson and reached the Round of 8 before being eliminated at Martinsville. He finished seventh in the standings.
Blaney started the 2022 Daytona 500 in fourth place but went winless for the regular season. He won the 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race. He clinched the final playoff spot at the regular-season finale at Daytona, beating Martin Truex Jr. by three points. He was eliminated after the Round of 8 and finished eighth in the standings.
Blaney broke a 59-race win drought by winning the 2023 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, leading the most laps and winning a stage. A sixth place at Gateway the following week put him atop the points standings. At Nashville he suffered his hardest impact of his career into the inside wall of turn one, leaving him with concussion-like symptoms; he urged NASCAR to install a SAFER barrier at the location, a call echoed by NASCAR's Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer.
In the playoffs, Blaney advanced through the first round, then won at Talladega in a photo finish over Kevin Harvick with a margin of 0.012 seconds. He finished sixth at Las Vegas but was disqualified after post-race inspection found a left-front damper that did not meet specifications; NASCAR later rescinded the penalty and restored his points after an issue was found with the damper template. A second-place finish at Homestead–Miami moved him ten points above the cutline entering Martinsville. He traded the lead with Denny Hamlin for most of the race, won stage two, and held off Aric Almirola for his third win of the season, locking himself into the Championship 4.
At the season finale at Phoenix, Blaney ran in the top ten throughout. Bell suffered an early brake failure that allowed Blaney to advance. On Lap 277 he went three-wide for the race lead after contact with Ross Chastain, before a Kyle Busch spin brought out a restart with 30 laps to go. Blaney and Kyle Larson ran side-by-side for nearly eleven laps before Blaney passed Larson for second with twenty laps to go. He held on to finish second, clinching the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship.
Blaney started the 2024 season with a 30th-place DNF at the Daytona 500. At Atlanta he led the final lap but finished second, 0.003 seconds behind Daniel Suárez in a three-wide photo finish. He won his first race of the season at the inaugural Iowa race on June 16. A month later he won at Pocono, just over seven years after his first Cup win at the same track. During the playoffs he won at Martinsville to reach the Championship 4 for a second consecutive year, before finishing second in the season finale at Phoenix to his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, who won the 2024 Cup Series championship. Blaney finished second in the final standings.
Blaney scored his first win of the 2025 season at Nashville. He won the Daytona summer race, edging Daniel Suárez by 0.031 seconds. During the playoffs he won at New Hampshire. Despite elimination in the Round of 8, he won at Phoenix and finished sixth in the standings.
Blaney started the 2026 season with a 27th-place DNF at Daytona. Three weeks later he won at Phoenix, and subsequently won the pole at Bristol.
At the start of the 2017 season Blaney launched a NASCAR-supported podcast, the Glass Case of Emotion, featuring Kim Coon and Chuck Bush; the podcast ran until the conclusion of the 2023 season. In June 2017 he joined Fox NASCAR's Cup driver-only broadcast team for the Xfinity Series race at Pocono as a pit reporter alongside Erik Jones and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., interviewing race winner Brad Keselowski. The day after, Blaney won his first Cup race with Keselowski — still in his firesuit — interviewing him. Since 2021 Blaney has served as a commentator in the booth for driver-only broadcasts and as a rotating analyst for regular Xfinity and ARCA Menard Series broadcasts.
In 2017, Blaney voiced the character Ryan "Inside" Laney in the Pixar film Cars 3 and had a cameo as a delivery boy in the film Logan Lucky. In 2018 he guest-starred as Special Agent Nathan Wood in season 2 episode 12 of the TV show Taken, as Shane Powell in a CBS reboot episode of Magnum P.I., and as Overdrive in the Spider-Man episode "Bring on the Bad Guys". In 2019 he had a cameo as himself in the Netflix series The Crew alongside Austin Dillon and Cole Custer. In 2021 he was one of three cover stars for the NASCAR 21: Ignition video game. He also appeared on the NASCAR 25 cover and helped curate the game's soundtrack. He was a featured driver in the 2022 USA Network series Race for the Championship and in the 2024 Netflix documentary series NASCAR: Full Speed, which followed the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs.
Blaney is the only son and middle child of Lisa and Dave Blaney, with two sisters, Emma and Erin. He is of Irish descent and is close friends with fellow drivers Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, William Byron, and Chase Elliott. He is an avid fan of Star Wars and Trailer Park Boys. Blaney has multiple tattoos, including a Star Wars-inspired piece on his right leg, a sprint car on his left side, and the number 10 in red on the left side of his chest, in tribute to the number he ran most often growing up. Blaney is married to model Gianna Tulio; the couple has a son.
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