Ryan Blaney, who clinched the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2023 and finished second in 2024, has come under the scrutiny of industry insiders, including Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In 2025 so far, the Team Penske driver has suffered four race retirements. During the Dale Jr Download podcast, Earnhardt Jr. reacted to Blaney’s troublesome race at Texas Motor Speedway which saw him make a “dumb decision,” as the driver branded it, on one of the restarts. Earnhardt Jr. explained:
“Ryan Blaney choosing the second row on the inside instead of starting next to [Kyle] Larson late in the race. And he got out and said, ‘Yeah, I messed up.’
“The only type of driver that I see make that move and I go, ‘Oh, okay,’ is a guy like [Ross] Chastain. I know that he’s probably thinking, ‘I’m [expletive] going three-wide here. But Blaney is not that guy. Blaney is not going to put his fellow competitors in a three-wide situation.
“I feel like in those situations, I know you don’t love restarting on the outside, but I think you have to. You just have to do it. If we get a chance to see Blaney, we’ve got to ask him what’s going on. Something’s going on with Blaney.”
Blaney claimed he made “dumb decisions” in Texas. He explained, as previously reported by Newsweek Sports:
“The one time I didn’t pick the outside, the 71 [McDowell] gets the lead, and then I couldn’t get it back.
“Just driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job. I appreciate the 12 car was a fast car. Just can’t do nothing right currently, so hopefully it will work itself out.”
Commenting on the restart, Blaney added:
“The top wasn’t very good at all. It was pretty dirty. And the one time I have a shot to do it, and don’t do it, the guy [McDowell] gets the lead.
“So I just didn’t do a good job. Then it was hard to get it after that. Just didn’t get a good push, and just could never hang with them over in [Turns] 3 and 4.”
Blaney concluded, discussing his climb from 24th to 3rd:
“Honestly, we really didn’t do it with strategy.
“We just kind of passed cars. So no, it was good and I thought our car was really good. I couldn’t get control of the race.
“So, overall, a proud day, fast car, and hopefully go forward. We’ve had speed all year, so it was nice that in the last couple of weeks, we’ve [Penske] gotten a car in Victory Lane. So that’s good, hopefully we can join them.”
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