Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain 'laughed about' hard racing after Phoenix
The big drama everyone is talking about after Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR championship doesn’t seem so serious now. Ross Chastain won the Phoenix race, and got the better of Blaney in a heated battle that left the champion frustrated. Even immediately after the race.
For the most part, Chastain shrugged it off. He has known Ryan Blaney for a long time and knows how he gets in the race car. In fact, it was almost like Ross enjoyed pissing Blaney off with his aero blocking and other hard racing tactics.
Really, it was interesting to watch and provided a fun wrinkle to the NASCAR championship.
It turns out, Blaney and Chastain were both laughing about the race. It’s just a racer thing. You get mad, cuss, say some things about someone you otherwise get along with. Then, you talk it out and put it aside.
“We actually saw each other after the race,” Blaney said to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “And we laughed about it. We joked about it. And I congratulated him for winning the race and he congratulated me for winning the title and we were fine. We were joking about it afterward when I saw him leaving the media center.”
Ryan Blaney had to go by Ross Chastain to get to the media center, they talked it out, and that was that.
“He was leaving the media center and I was walking in there and we were just joking around and laughing about it. We were fine with it. I congratulated him and he congratulated me and we were good. We just laughed about it afterward.”
Honestly, I think this makes Blaney’s post-race comments even better. It was a fun weekend with just enough drama to make it interesting.
Ryan Blaney not the favorite to repeat championship
In case you were thinking that Ryan Blaney would become a top pick in NASCAR, think again. Even though he just became the champion and performed his best in the final five weeks of the season, Las Vegas doesn’t think he’s going to repeat.
It feels like since that 2021 championship, Kyle Larson has been favored for most races and for the championship each year. Perhaps rightfully so. He was dominant in 2021. He got into a Hendrick car and took off for Phoenix and the championship. Larson won three of the final five races that year.
Larson is favored to win the 2024 championship in the very early odds. He’s a 5-1 favorite while Ryan Blaney is listed at 10-1 odds. I’m not so sure about that. 2024 might be even more of a breakout season for Blaney as he rides the wave of this championship.
A lot is going to happen between now and next year’s championship. However, it feels like Ryan Blaney is still being undervalued by most. Make of that what you will.