Denny Hamlin: Ryan Blaney is 'an elite speedway racer'

Denny Hamlin heaped praise on the ability of Ryan Blaney following the latter’s victory at Talladega last weekend.

Blaney clinched his spot in the Round of 8 on Sunday, and won’t have to worry about much at the Charlotte Roval this weekend. During his latest Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin elaborated on what makes Blaney such an awesome super-speedway racer.

“So we did have a Cup race on this interesting week. We had Ryan Blaney, taking the dub. His third win at Talladega Superspeedway. He is an elite speedway racer,” said Hamlin.

While Blaney’s skill has been evident for a long time at Talladega, many of NASCAR’s best believe the Next Gen car has hampered their abilities on these types of tracks, and Hamlin is trying to get to the bottom as to why.

“I’ve had conversations with what I deemed probably the most talented speedway racers before the race, because I told them, ‘Hey, we’re going to talk about this a little bit on (Actions Detrimental),’ about (if) they feel as though — the Next Gen super speedway racing — can you show your skills off as much as I believe you’re good at this? Do you feel like your skills are shown as much now with Next Gen superspeedway racing or not? And all of them unanimously said no,” Hamlin added. “They said, ‘Not as much.’ Michael McDowell, who I put in that category, said to me, ‘I certainly do not feel as though my skillset has shown as much, but I’m adapting.’ Which I thought was a very good point. You do have to adapt certainly.

“You can’t argue that the top guys find their way to the front at some point or another, which is why Ryan Blaney won again. He’s won in Gen-6. He’s won in Next Gen now. So he counters that argument a little bit. But I definitely agree with, what the guy’s said that I spoke to, I won’t name each one individually regarding what this person said, that person said, was that the general consensus is that, what good ones do is find runs, and when they find runs, they use the run. They take it and then they use that run to take another run, or they take that run to make it into another. So you’re weaving back and forth, and there was gaps. There was ways you could create runs. There were ways that you could defend. The Next Gen, being that you needed so much help behind you, it just — it’s not a dependent on you as it was having help behind you to finish whatever move you might want to make. So all that is to say, the Next Gen cars, why is it different now than it was in Gen-6? The difference now is the cars have a lot more drag in them.”

Alas, perhaps NASCAR will find a way to have more driver-talent shine through at tracks like Daytona and Talladega, but Denny Hamlin is sure of one thing — Ryan Blaney will continue to be a popular pick whenever the Cup Series is at a super-speedway.