Team Penske suffered a massive heartbreak at the Martinsville Speedway on Sunday after Ryan Blaney failed to make the Championship 4. He was the team’s biggest hope to keep their title streak going, but sadly, he couldn’t deliver when it mattered the most.
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Despite this disappointment, his season doesn’t have to be considered a failure, according to Steve Letarte. The depth of talent in the NASCAR Cup Series field is higher now than it ever was.
With the cars being identical to each other to a large degree, the game has become harder for everybody. Citing this, Letarte opined that Blaney reaching the Round of 8 itself was an achievement that deserves a lot of praise.
The former crew chief said on NASCAR: Inside The Race, “I believe any year you make the playoffs and go probably to the Round of 8. I don’t want to say… So, I wouldn’t have said it was a successful year maybe eight years ago, but I feel that the garage is so deep with talent that it’s hard to figure to get to the [Championship] 4.”
Letarte further underlined that the Round of 8 is the new Championship 4.
The competitors a driver has to beat to reach this level are of the highest order. In such a tough setting, Blaney secured three wins, 14 top-5s, and 18 top-10s throughout the season. He also led 831 laps, one of the highest totals of the year, giving him plenty to take pride in and pat himself on the back for.
Blaney’s near miss at the Martinsville Speedway
Blaney was one of the most dominant drivers on Sunday at the short track. He led 177 laps and had great speed in his No. 12 Ford Mustang. But an aggressive and yet brilliant move that William Byron pulled in the final laps of the race led to him falling back. Ultimately, he finished the race 0.717 seconds behind the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
The rest of the Championship 4 were only too glad that they wouldn’t be racing against either Blaney or his teammate, the defending champion, Joey Logano. Both drivers are extremely good at performing under high pressure and would most certainly have been the favorites to win the title had they made it in.
Regardless of what went down, Blaney can still attempt to add one more win to his tally at Phoenix.
