NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- With a handlebar mustache straight out of "Tombstone Territory" and a laid-back, affable personality, Ryan Blaney has the potential to expand his presence beyond racing.
Jeff Gordon extended NASCAR's reach in 2003 when he hosted "Saturday Night Live," and Blaney wouldn't mind following in the four-time champion's footsteps.
"I would love to," Blaney said when asked whether he would like to host the show. "That's probably P1 on my bucket list. I would love to do SNL. I'm a big SNL fan.
"That's a big commitment, though. If you guest-host SNL, you're gone for a week. I don't really have a week in my schedule, unless it's in the winter. Maybe one day. That would be really, really neat."
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Blaney already has his musical guest picked out.
"I'm good buddies with Whiskey Myers," he said. "I think they would put on a pretty good show."
Blaney does have a brief history in television. He had a guest role in 2019 on the Magnum P.I. episode "Winner Takes All."
"That one actually worked out fun, because I was vacationing in Hawaii, in Maui, and they filmed it in Honolulu," Blaney said. "They said, 'Hey, can you come film this now?' and yeah, so I took a puddle jumper over to Honolulu and filmed it.
"That was just neat because the timing of it worked out pretty cool."