He’s a second-generation Cup driver, North Carolina raised, and prefers Bill Elliott T-shirts and Talladega 500 hats to anything hip and trendy.

More important, Blaney is pretty good behind the wheel of a race car and has proven through the first six races of this season that he won’t bow down to the stars of the sport. His 25th-place finish Sunday at Martinsville Speedway tells next to nothing about his race, where he ran inside the top 10 for a large portion of the day and scored points in the first two stages.

But he also mixed it up on the track with seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, and had yet another run-in with Dale Earnhardt Jr. It was the second time in three weeks the two tangled on the track, and Earnhardt hit decline on his cellphone when Blaney called to discuss the incident after Sunday’s race.

Blaney lives on land that Earnhardt’s owns, and he landed in the doghouse when he used an expletive on his team radio about NASCAR’s most popular driver. He atoned for it by giving Earnhardt’s wife flowers the next week, and vowing to bring the beer the next time Blaney hangs out with Earnhardt.

Earnhardt chuckled Sunday when the two had contact yet again .

Johnson found nothing funny about how hard Blaney raced him, and grumbled on his radio about the 23-year-old.

But Blaney, at least on his team radio, doesn’t back down and is adamant he can hold his own on the track. His results this year have gotten him noticed – he was second in the Daytona 500, seventh at Las Vegas and ninth at California – and he currently sits seventh in the point standings.

Blaney is theoretically a Team Penske driver, although he’s farmed out to The Wood Brothers and pilots the iconic No. 21 Ford. The relationship has returned that car to prominence, and has Blaney closing in on his first career Cup victory. If looking for a new favorite driver, Blaney is the one to back before it becomes the cool thing to do.

JIMMIE JOHNSON

He’s off to the worst start of his storied career. He’s yet to score a top-five finish this year, and the reigning NASCAR champion has never before gone four races into the season without cracking that mark. He finished 15th on Sunday at Martinsville, where he should have been among the contenders. A nine-time winner at the Virginia track, his victory there last fall was the springboard to his record-tying seventh title.

There was tension on his team radio, too, as he bickered with crew chief Chad Knaus midway through the race. Johnson was angry with Blaney and Kyle Larson, and racing harder than Knaus would have liked. So Knaus told him to take care of his car, to which Johnson complained he received mixed messages and thought he’d been encouraged to ”handle (Blaney) on the track.”

It’s far too early to panic about Johnson’s slow start, and important to remember that Hendrick Motorsports was off much of last year until gains were made that propelled Johnson to the title. But, it’s interesting that his seventh title has created somewhat of a hangover effect at the start of this year.

RICKY STENHOUSE JR.

He brazenly moved Kyle Busch out of his way Sunday at Martinsville to stay on the lead lap, and it led to his first career top-10 finish at the track.

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”She had no idea who I was,” Blaney said with a grin. ”I wasn’t going to be like, `Hey, I drive race cars.’ You can’t do that. That’s not cool. … We didn’t really talk that much. I was just trying not to sweat profusely and make a fool out of myself.”

Hopefully the up-and-coming NASCAR driver is a bit smoother on the track at Fontana when he attempts to make another West Coast memory Sunday.

He’s in the middle of a crowded field led by pole-sitter Kyle Larson, while defending champion Jimmie Johnson will be charging up from 37th in his backup car.

”It’s cool to see some younger drivers running very well,” said Blaney, who finished second at Daytona and seventh at Las Vegas in his Wood Brothers Racing Ford. ”I think we’ve hit on a lot of those goals that we had, while we’re still getting better and better. But it’s nice to have a good start right away. Hopefully we can keep getting better and keep the momentum rolling.”

While NASCAR’s aging fan base and regional appeal have been scrutinized this season, the sport’s transition toward a younger demographic is exemplified by the show going on outside Auto Club Speedway this weekend: Monster Energy drink, the Cup series’ new title sponsor, is putting on a showcase featuring motocross, stunt truck drivers and other action sports-related fun.

Cars going over 180 mph also should be appealing to that demographic, and NASCAR usually delivers a solid race when it closes out its West Coast swing on the well-aged asphalt of the 2-mile track built by Roger Penske. The former California Speedway opened 20 years ago, and its anniversary race should feature the same four-wide racing that made it famous.

”It’s always a lot of fun to go to a worn-out surface,” said Larson, the overall points leader despite not winning a race or even a stage. ”Fontana is one of my favorites, because there are so many different lanes to choose from and the seams are tricky. It’s a super-wide race track, and you can run anywhere from the bottom to the top. Got to be conservative on your tires and be patient against the wall, but also aggressive. It’s an intense race track.”

Here are some other things to watch when the stars who like cars gather one hour east of Hollywood:

CALIFORNIA LOVE: Larson is on the pole for just the second time in his career after three consecutive second-place finishes in NASCAR’s last three races. While the Northern California native might be the hottest driver on the circuit, nobody wins at Fontana like Johnson, the Southern Californian with a record six victories here – including last season, when he charged past Kevin Harvick in overtime.

LATE START: Johnson wrecked in practice Friday, and crew chief Chad Knaus decided not to attempt to qualify in the backup car. The seven-time series champion driver doesn’t appear worried about the distance he’ll have to cover just to have a chance, but he isn’t the only contender starting from the back. Joey Logano will be in 35th after failing to put together a qualifying lap.

SILVER MEDALS: No driver has finished second in four straight races since Mark Martin in 1998. Larson would prefer the win, but he’s also pleased by his consistency at the start of his fourth full Cup season.

BUSCH LEAGUE: Kyle Busch is a strong contender for another title at Fontana, where he won back-to-back races in 2013 and 2014 to cap four consecutive top-three finishes at the track. Busch also was leading late at Phoenix last week, but Logano, his old buddy, forced a yellow flag and likely cost him the race.

JUNIOR’S MILESTONE: Dale Earnhardt Jr. will become just the 25th driver in NASCAR history to start 600 races. He has run well at Fontana, particularly in recent years, but has never won here.

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