1. Take stock
Ryan Blaney is not on pace to reach career highs in important statistical categories like top-five or top-10 finishes in 2024. Blaney’s past seasons have seen more consistency in terms of his average finishes.
But this year — and dating back to the middle of the 2023 playoffs — Blaney looks like a different driver. That is, a victorious one.
When Blaney scored his first career win midway through his second full-time season at Pocono Raceway in 2017, it seemed like many more trophies would soon be on the way. He was a young prospect with lots of potential and there were expectations that he would win many races on an annual basis.
Except, during his first seven and a half years in the NASCAR Cup Series, he only won seven times. And in the run up to the final round of the championship, it did not look assured that Blaney would be much more than a once-a-year winner.
The perception has definitely changed. Blaney has now won five times in the last 14 months, including twice this season after Pocono — but he was also turn it off To be two more.
Blaney ran out of gas while leading on the last lap at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis in June, and Daniel Suarez overtook him (and Kyle Busch) at the Atlanta finish line in February, making him the fastest lap in NASCAR history. Lost one of the close finishes. ,
More importantly, it’s not an uncommon sight to see Blaney step up and compete for wins on a regular basis. Once living in the shadow of his more established teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, Blaney is no longer just another driver on his own team. And with Keselowski’s move to a still-building organization and Logano’s relative lack of results since winning the 2022 championship (two wins in the past season and a half) — coupled with Kevin Harvick’s retirement — the 30-year-old Blaney as a A leader has emerged, not just for Team Penske, but for Ford as a whole.
“When you’re young and you’re getting into it, you only care about pushing the gas pedal down and you lose focus on the end goal,” Blaney said. “I’ve tried to maintain the same momentum that I’ve had for a while, but also try to get my mind into ‘this is not all that matters.'”
“Anyone can be fast. But can you complete the entire race at once? …I’ve worked really hard at trying to do that, trying to be that person.
2. Fastest Car Tracker
Other cars have been performing poorly in recent weeks, winning three races in a row (Nashville, Chicago, Pocono). While Blaney led the most laps on Sunday, he was also the beneficiary of a great strategy call that gave him clean air and probably helped turn a top three to five car into a win.
“We knew early on that I thought our car was good enough to win the race, it was just a matter of being able to get the front two rows on the restart,” Blaney said.
Blaney led the “Fastest Laps Run” category in NASCAR’s loop data (he had 22 of the fastest laps while Denny Hamlin had 17), but Hamlin took the overall green flag despite spending less time in clean air. The pace was a little fast.
The assumption is that whoever took the lead would probably have had a hard time passing at the end, so we’ll say that the fastest car (Hamlin) did not win the race – although Blaney was certainly not far behind.
Fastest Car Score: Other cars 13, fastest cars 10.
Fastest cars according to driver: Christopher Bell 5, Denny Hamlin 4, Kyle Larson 3, Tyler Reddick 2, William Byron 2, Joey Logano 2, Michael McDowell 1, Martin Truex Jr. 1, Todd Gilliland 1, Ty Gibbs 1, Shane Van Gisbergen 1.
Denny Hamlin may have had the fastest car on Sunday, but a great strategy call by Ryan Blaney put Blaney on his way to victory. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)
3. Question and Answer
Each week in this spot, we’ll ask a question and try to answer one from the past.
Q: What are NASCAR’s true “Crown Jewel” races?
The Brickyard 400 returns this week after a three-year hiatus, and it’s worth wondering if the break has weakened the reputation of the longtime leader.
From this corner, the answer is: absolutely not. If anything, the absence of the true NASCAR Indianapolis experience has made racing hearts grow fonder.
Just look at the Southern 500, for example. NASCAR officials once foolishly thought it was a good idea to move the historic Labor Day weekend race away from Darlington to Southern California. Sure, there was still a race at Darlington, but catching the Southern 500 in April didn’t feel like the real thing.
Once Darlington was restored to its traditional date in 2015 after a 12-year break, it again became one of the best-loved events on the schedule.
So many editions of the Brickyard were so boring, and attendance so low, that you can see why NASCAR wanted to try the Indianapolis road course. Especially in 2020, when the decision was made, NASCAR road racing was very popular.
Additionally, NASCAR did not view the move as taking any major concessions to the schedule. When a reporter asked in 2020 how the schedule would be redesigned with one less crown-jewel race, NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell objected on this basis.
O’Donnell then said, “I don’t know how this is a low-key gem.” “Brickyard, we’re going to run the road course. This is a crown jewel.”
But NASCAR miscalculated that drivers, crew members and fans alike would maintain the road course with the same prestige as racing on the oval. They did not do so, and there was also no replacement for the Brickyard in NASCAR’s Crown schedule (despite some suggestions that the Bristol Night Race would move into that slot).
Thankfully, the Brickyard is back – and hopefully here to stay, regardless of entertainment value. It’s too important a race to disappear, and it’s now regaining its place in the majors with the Daytona 500, Southern 500 and Coca-Cola 600.
Answer: What is “fair” racing?
This topic was raised in this column after last year’s Pocono, which saw the Denny Hamlin-Kyle Larson incident that decided the race.
Since that year, debate over racing ethics has almost subsided. It’s common in the current Next Gen environment to push someone too hard, with little give and mostly take – whether it’s on restarts or trying to hold off a faster car from passing during a long race.
Blocking (whether by swerving or using the wind in one’s line), pinning someone down the track, running them across the wall and out of the room – it now seems to be a more accepted part of the game, even if the driver doesn’t want to. Do especially enjoy running like that. In other words, most aggression on the track no longer appears to be a serious violation of the driver code.
Still, some examples go beyond fair racing – it depends on who you ask. It appeared that Corey Lajoie dumped Kyle Busch for a second block on Sunday, although replays did not show what Lajoie described (Busch essentially did it himself). .
But Lajoie told NASCAR.com’s Jesse Punch after the race that he had no plans to apologize and wouldn’t do anything differently. So as is typically the case in NASCAR, which almost always stays out of “avoidable contact” situations, it will be up to Busch and LaJoie to decide what they believe is appropriate racing going forward.
This year, the NASCAR Cup Series has moved away from the road courses at the Brickyard and back to the oval, which has been largely welcomed. (Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
4. Nasquirks
After years of racing in overbuilt venues that no longer reflect the current level of fan interest, NASCAR is very much in balance these days. The so-called trend of “right-size” grandstands, along with a post-pandemic resurgence in event travel, has helped NASCAR tracks reach six sellouts in 23 Cup Series races (including exhibitions) so far this season.
As one industry colleague said, it also helps to look “right sized” in terms of schedule.
Pocono sold out for the second consecutive season, which once seemed ridiculous when the track had a pair of 500-mile races six weeks apart. But now, with space for about 50,000 fans and only one 400-mile race per year – with an impressive infield camping and fan-zone experience – the Pocono has become a desirable race to attend in the Northeast (sans Sunday traffic problems. Excluding).
The Daytona 500 and the inaugural Iowa Speedway weekend also sold out before the calendar turned to 2024, Phoenix Raceway sold out its March race (sixth consecutive sellout overall) and Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600 announced its third consecutive sellout on Wednesday. of. Race. Nashville Superspeedway also sold out for the third time in four years.
These races come after a 50 percent increase in sales from 2022 to 2023, and there are still some potentially sold-out events to come this season.
5. Five on number five
Our Mini Power Rankings after race numbers 23/38 (including exhibitions):
1. Ryan Blaney (Last time: 4): If Blaney doesn’t run out of gas at Gateway, he suddenly has three wins in the last seven races. This power display on big tracks cannot be ignored.
2. Tyler Reddick (Last time: 5): He now has seven top-10s in the last eight races and should have won two of the last three races.
3. Denny Hamlin (last time: 2): It was quite a slump for Hamlin, but when it came time to perform on a big track again, the No. 11 team brought a fast car. Hamlin should be the favorite going into Indianapolis, having never won.
4. Kyle Larson (Last time: 3): The No. 5 team has led four consecutive races without leading a lap for the first time since July 2022. But speed is still there, which is the most important factor at this time of year.
5. Christopher Bell (Last time: 1): Bell, oddly, was a non-factor at Pocono and finished 12th – followed by crashes at both Nashville and Chicago that spoiled what otherwise would have been good results.
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(Top photo of Ryan Blaney celebrating Sunday’s win: James Gilbert/Getty Images)
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