Ryan Blaney is a purist. He believes races should be won by drivers going as fast as they can and as clean as they can in a race.
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Needless to say, he is not an advocate of team rules or race manipulation to give a driver, particularly a teammate, any type of advantage in the race at your own expense.
Blaney discussed that kind of scenario Saturday during media availability at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“No one likes seeing that stuff,” Blaney said when asked about how teammate Joey Logano barely snuck into the Round of Eight, but by no help of his own. Rather, Logano advanced to the semifinals due to contact between his closest competitor, Ross Chastain, and Denny Hamlin, when the latter two drivers made contact with each other on the final lap at the Charlotte Roval.
Hamlin was accused by some critics of intentionally causing the wreck because he felt he might have an advantage over either Logano or Chastain in the Round of Eight or the Championship 4 title-winning finale.
“It’s not pure motorsports to me,” Blaney said of team rules or race manipulation. “And it’s tough, you’ve got the teams and manufacturers saying these things, and as a driver, you’re kind of handcuffed to an extent because you have to do what your team is asking you to do.
“It kind of gets to be a mucky situation. I’d like to see just everyone racing and worry about yourself and you’re not responsible for this guy, just do what’s best for you. I don’t think it will hurt to have a conversation with NASCAR and maybe there’s penalties involved if a certain situation is about, but we’ll see what it gets to.”
Blaney chuckled a bit about how manipulation takes place on a regular basis in Formula One.
“F1 deals with this stuff all the time – and they just come out and say it, don’t do it,” the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford quipped. “They never really get a hard time for that, and that’s just blatant, like do not pass your teammate or swap positions. That, to me, is not right, either. I’d just like for it to play out naturally.
“Like if your car is faster and you can pass that person, then go past that person. It can get pretty weird pretty quick and it kind of takes away a little bit of the purity of motorsport, I feel like.”
Blaney’s comments underline his long-held belief that NASCAR should preserve the integrity of true competition. While acknowledging the pressure that comes from manufacturers and team orders, Blaney made clear that his ideal version of racing is one where every driver fights solely for themselves and their best finish, without outside interference.
As the playoff field narrows and tensions rise, Blaney’s words are a reminder that many fans and drivers alike just want to see pure racing decided by speed, skill, and clean competition, not manipulation or orchestrated results.
