Ahead of the championship-deciding race at Phoenix Raceway, former NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett shared who he believed would end up winning the title. Instead of selecting Kyle Larson, who often has been the favorite amongst the NASCAR community, Jarrett ended up selecting Blaney as his pick to win the title this weekend.
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Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney seemingly has left an impression on a lot of people after his fantastic win at the Martinsville Speedway. In the process, denying Denny Hamlin from advancing into the championship four. Not many would have thought that Blaney could have done it, but he did end up impressing in the last few weekends.
Dale Jarrett picks Ryan Blaney in place of Kyle Larson to win the Cup title
While speaking on the Motorsports on NBC Podcast Jarrett mentioned, “It’s easy to go off of the most recent thing that happened. But it’s not just the most recent, it’s the recent history at Phoenix with Ryan Blaney and his team with this car.”
“And I think that means a lot that they have everything that it takes. They have had the speed in the cars… He has performed well here… He finished second to his teammate Joey Logano last year when Logano was the champion. I just believe this is Ryan Blaney’s time. I believe he comes in as the hottest driver performing on this type of track…”
He then mentions that he could make a case for any driver in the championship four regarding the fact that Larson won a championship at this track before and the others like Byron and Bell had performed well at Phoenix as well. Hence, he looks forward to the race on Sunday knowing that it would be a spectacle to watch.
But regardless of the competition, Jarrett maintains his pick to be Blaney.
Blaney does not believe luck had anything to do with his Martinsville performance
After his race at Martinsville, where he emerged victorious over the competition by a fair margin, Blaney had been asked by the media if good luck played a major part during his race last weekend. Blaney, seemingly upset by the question, fired back at the journalist asking, “What’s been lucky about it? I don’t think anything’s been lucky about it.”
“Last three weeks we’ve been running amazing.”
Blaney maintained his argument that his performance had nothing to do with luck, but the sheer hard work and determination of his team constantly working to get the car to where it belongs. He added that one could interpret luck in whatever way they wanted, but at the end of the day, they would have to bring a fast race car to win races consistently.
