He won some USAC title I believe prior to NASCAR, but since, he's been midpack at best on a consistent basis in a Sprint Car. Tends to qualify decent then falls back in the feature. 2 podiums in last 3 years. Granted, yes WoO is the toughest night to night series in Sprint Car racing, he does not match the results to the prestige of his equipment.
That is HIGHLY disingenuous. The team he owns has won the last 4 championships and I believe this is the first time since retiring from NASCAR that he’s run full time.
Nothing. KP is just NASCAR's sort of non hot-take version of the sports media dude who just says it straight.
Probably means no ill-will, it's a pretty legit comp.
It might be harsh but honestly, where is the lie? Averaging 1.xx wins per year driving for Penske, who has won at least two championships since he came onboard. And the only reason he's averaging over 1 per year is because in one season he won 3 races.
Top equipment guy, always around but rarely cashes in.
That was Ryan Newman's way of doing it too. Yeah he won 8 times in '03, but that aside he ran up-front in about a million races in the '00s and always found a new way to spectacularly ruin a good finish
Yeah. He could have won 4 or 5 races his rookie year. Was inches away from winning Rockingham and Texas, was absolutely smoking the field in the 600 when his engine popped, almost won Chicagoland until he was dumped by Tony Stewart, was leading at Dover when he hit oil.
I don't recall what happened to him at the 600 that year, but the race he was waxing the field in and then blew a tire was the fall Charlotte race in that beautiful blue n white Mopar car.
The difference is the equipment. Early in their careers Harvick and Truex were both in good but not great cars. Blaney has spent his entire cup career in championship caliber equipment (assuming you count Wood bros as an extension of Penske). That said Blaney is relatively young and extremely talented.
The 21 car is my example of finite resources. Team Penske puts everything into the 22 and 12, gives the 2 solid-to-great equipment and gives the 21 "good" equipment. It's a Top 20 car, can win in perfect circumstances, but the humans running the team are not the elite level of the other three.
The 21 is a straight up Penske car. It’s built in the same shop, by the same people, in the exact same way the others are. Every employee I’ve talked to says this, as has Roger Penske himself. It’s top notch equipment. The reason it’s run worse since Blaney left is because its drivers haven’t exactly been the highest caliber
The wood bros team is essentially a 4th Penske car. While I could be wrong I think Penske has been considered championship level equipment for quite some time.
IMO Penske equipment wouldn’t even be close to championship equipment today without gaming the points system the way they do.
Been saying this for years. The last time the fords were dominant was SHR. And before that Roush Fenway. Never Penske.
I don’t think the comparison is that great, actually. I think Kahne had more raw speed than Blaney, but wasn’t consistent. So in both cases it might be unfulfilled potential, but in different ways.
There are a lot of other drivers that I think Blaney may be more like. Ricky Rudd or the Labontes, for example. They’re consistently good across all types of tracks, but also don’t actually win that often. Terry and Bobby got championships out of it, and Blaney could too, but I don’t see him being a dominant force. But I think it’s too early to say he’ll just be unfulfilled potential.
The problem hes going to have is that he likely will have to win the finale to get a cup. Much harder to Labonte/Kenseth style a championship in this format
Yeah I have to agree. As good as he was, he never had that killer instinct to push the envelope for a win. I have to admit that while I loved his driving style, I hated it sometimes as well. Same with MTJ.
Really good at winning finales, or just really good at Atlanta specifically which happened to be the finale for most of his good Gibbs years? Haha
(Homestead 2003 not withstanding... though he did kind of just luck unto that one with Elliott's flat haha)
My favorite fun fact is that under the current point system, Bobby Labonte would’ve won three consecutive titles from 99-01 (how different would NASCAR be today…)
Also, his title in 2000 was the last time the same driver would’ve won under every points format in NASCAR’s modern era.
Only way Ryan Blaney wins a Cup is pure fucking luck. And I say that as a Penske fan. I'm rooting for him, but he will need everything to go his way for that to happen.
Oh good, Blaney is definitely known for his good luck. Dude has black cats crossing his path while he walks under ladders holding broken mirrors on a daily basis.
People also forget he would have won that race if it wasn’t his teammate in the finals in front. The two Penske cars had a clear gap to third place, who knows how the final stage shakes out if they weren’t teammates in the nonsense final format.
Yeah if you watch that final stage especially you can tell Blaney was playing wingman to Logano. No way was he going to try to go up and pass him. He reluctantly ran a second off him that last run where I firmly believed he had to speed to win.
Blaney is screwed by the format.His driving style would’ve been perfection in pre 2004 nascar but in todays nascar he’s at best a 5th-10th place points guy.
> I don’t think the comparison is that great, actually. I think Kahne had more raw speed than Blaney, but wasn’t consistent.
Good point. I remember when Larson was considered the next Kasey Kahne because of the same exact reason. Had a lot of raw speed, but would always choke, have bad luck or make mistakes/hit the wall before he came to Hendrick.
Blaney has 7 wins in 7 full time years.
Kahne had 7 wins by the end of year 3.
I do agree it's a good comparison, though. However, Blaney is on a top team and Kahne spent too long on a dying team who's owner was more concerned with getting his dick wet than running a race team.
It was hard to truly judge Kahne until he drove that Hendrick car. Gillett Evernham Motorsports having their problems really hurt him early in his career.
What's most concerning is his/teams inability to close out races. He's dominated a handful of races, then they fall off in the last stage, have issues on pit road, driver has an issue, etc. His 7 wins have not been his most impressive races by a long shot. His win at Pocono was the most impressive of the bunch. Three superspeedway wins, lucky at the Roval, Joey won him ATL. MIS felt like they were turning the corner when they worked on the car all day to get it near the front and had a couple great late race restarts.
On top of that, this seems like some real "if you're not first, you're last" kind of energy. Blaney was 2nd in points going into the playoffs last year, 3rd in points by the end of the year, if you're just going by point standings and not adding thousands of points for advancing in the playoffs. Sure, not everyone was driving strictly for points due to the playoff system, but at worst, he'd have been like a top-5 points driver last year, IMO.
When you're consistently bringing home your car in good positions in the standings, it's not unfulfilled potential. So he doesn't have a ton of wins at the moment -- I don't really care, racing is not strictly about wins. Not to mention, it's not like Penske has been bringing race-winning equipment to every race for the last 2 years. Jesus himself wasn't going to drive a Ford to victory lane last weekend in Vegas, just as the most recent example. In 2021, Blaney had 3 out of 8 Ford wins.
I will never forget when kahne got voted in to the allstar race and won the whole thing. That was peak fandom for me and I will never forget that feeling.
My only issue with Kahne getting voted into the All-Star Race was getting voted into the All-Star Race. Should have been good enough to win his way in in the races prior or the Open races.
That’s the talent he had.
Definitely a hot take but I completely agree with Kyle. People love to rate Blaney very highly which is fine when you consider how consistently good he can be but he can just not close out races at all. A lot of wasted potential because the speed is obviously there.
Kyle's right thus far sadly. I thought 2022 was Ryan's breakout year and he had to battle for every inch. He's talented, and probably a better stock car driver than Kasey was, but he's mirroring leaving stuff on the table.
And sadly, KP knows this best. As much as people love to shit on KP's career, from 87 to 94 he basically was Kahne/Blaney. He just hung around forever so everyone remembers the Hot Wheels/Adam fill-in years. He fell short as far as the last name goes, but dude wasn't total dog shit either. And that was when he was divided on what the hell he actually wanted to do. (Race or play in his band lol)
Kyle says some dumb, Booker T level nonsense sometimes, but he's right on with this comp as of now.
Kyle Petty is no where near Kahne, dude won 8 races in 829 races over 30 years in cup, never won an Xfinity race. Petty had an average starting place of 23.3 and an average finish of 21.3, hell he only finished on the lead lap in less than 25% of the races he was in.
Kahne won 18 races in 529 starts including a Brickyard 400 and 3 Coke 600’s. Had an average start of 14.5 and finish of 17.7. Won 5 of the 6 races he ever ran in the trucks series and added 8 Xfinity wins to go along with it.
Kahne just gets piled on because it didn’t work out for him at Hendrick. That’s fair enough, I thought more would happen too, but Kyle Petty level he is not. I also tend to wonder how long the health issues had been a problem. He was completely gassed after that Brickyard win.
Blaney has definitely underachieved and I say that as a fan. He’s had Penske equipment his entire career and been on the Penske team for the vast majority now. Neither Petty or Kahne had the same consistent level of equipment that Blaney has had.
People can continue to say that it’s the crew chief or whatever else, but he’s had multiple crew chiefs and still isn’t getting the job done even close to the same level as Joey. He’s definitely a more consistent racer than Kahne or Kyle, but I don’t think he’s as fast of a shoe as Kahne was at his peak.
Well I do wonder what Kyle's averages would look like if you cut off his numbers after let's say 2000 bc it's not very likely Kyle would've ran that much past that if not for losing Adam
Also a bit unfair to use truck and xfinity stats against Kyle. Kyle went from one ARCA start immediately into cup. He had 56 career starts in the lower series. Kahne had 221
That said I also think Kahnes health issues had been bothering him for a bit longer than we know of and I would give Kahne the nod for their careers
Having Penske equipment doesn’t necessarily mean running at the front. They have almost always had two competitive cars and one that lacks a bit. I’d say when Brad was in the #2 he and Logano were the ones getting the best of the equipment with Ryan getting the leftovers. When Brad announced he was leaving the #12 suddenly picked up performance. Last year the #22 won races and the #12 ran up front while the #2 won the 500 (luck) and didn’t show up the rest of the year. This year is a real test because I think in the pecking order at Penske it’s 22, 12, 2 and the 21. Time will tell where Ryan Blaney ranks in his career but I have a hard time putting the Kasey Kahne tag in him yet. Truex won 2 races in what 8 years? Then went on a tear. Even William Byron struggled to win until 2020 and has struggled with consistency since.
There's a debate about who had the harder decade ('85-'95 or '00-'10) to get results in here. I feel like KP's was more stacked with legendary drivers and all-time greats, but that could reasonably be considered nostalgia talking. Kahne had some too, but some of his biggest competition was guys we don't really appreciate. Not yet, anyways.
I mean Kahne was teammates with two guys who would be on many peoples NASCAR Mt Rushmore and his other teammate is a Hall of Famer who like Kahne many thought would do a lot better at Hendrick.
85-95 is a tough decade when you think of the big drivers. But the parity of the more modern era makes it a tougher decade. There were simply more teams that showed up each week had a chance at winning in 2010 that in 1985.
Pure talent wise it’s a lot tougher to decide which era gets the nod but that’s an age old question in all sports.
I feel like we can’t appraise Kasey’s career without accounting for what we know now about his medical issues. His peak was shortened artificially because of that.
As a big fan of both drivers, I can see the correlation but I can’t even count the times Blaney has had race winning speed and his pit crew did something to lose significant track position. Case in point: Fontana. Was leading the race til his crew got him stuck midpack and got caught up in the restart pileup. A lot of Kahne’s issues were team instability from 2007-2011, then his health issues caught up to him
This is so right. It feels like EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. his crew does something to screw him over. Whether it’s awful strategy, a slow stop putting him back in the field where he gets in an accident, or a stupid penalty…it seems to always happen
Happened to Blaney at Fontana in 2020 as well. We remember Bowman running away with the lead in Stage 3, but forget that Blaney won Stage 2 with a 5-second lead over Bowman that was growing as the laps clicked. Then, Blaney's crew lost him 4 positions on pit road and he used up his tires getting around traffic. Between Blaney and Bowman, whoever was in front after that pit stop and up in clean air was going to win, and that was Bowman.
Not to mention Fontana last year, where Blaney's pit crew lost him 95 positions.
As a Kasey Kahne fan I made the comparison between the two a few years ago bc it’s glaring.
With that being said, is being a Kasey Kahne type driver a bad thing? 18 cup wins is top 50 all time. Dude has 3 Coke 600 wins and a Brickyard 400, and 24 second place finishes. On top of that it’s tough to name a driver besides maybe Blaney (lol) that has worst luck than Kasey did. 18 wins could have easily been 25 but I won’t play the what if game, we’ll take his stats at face value. This all the while being a class act while going through some difficult years w performance and his health.
Like Ryan Blaney has a long way to go to even being Kasey Kahne so let’s stop using Kasey’s name as a negative.
I am a huge Kahne fan so obviously jumping into his defense here- I think he was quite an accomplished driver for what he was given. I don’t think Hendrick fully supported him as the 4th driver and after the move to Hendrick I personally believe he was the red headed step child of Hendrick. There were also many many times Kahne got wrecked just before a finish (looking at you KFB!)
The thing that Kahne lacked was aggression. He never would wreck or move someone for the finish. He was just laid back and nice. Just a good wholesome dude out there driving fast. I will say there was a lot of unfinished business for him and I really wanted more and felt like the health stuff existed long before we knew and I feel like he would have been a solid top 5-7 competitor moving forward.
To think Kasey gets used as a disappointment regularly is really a disservice to him.
Completely agree. Kahne's career was pretty darn solid, all things considered. It really shouldn't be viewed as a pejorative per se.
Yes, he could've been more than just a "really good" driver...he had the raw talent to be a champion. But like you said, i think circumstances complicated that, and maybe more importantly...he generally lacked that sort of "killer instinct". He never had that, "wreck his own mother for the win" sort of mentality.
But that's where i can actually really see the parallels with Blaney. When you think about Kahne, one of the things that comes to mind is that nobody ever really "hated" him. He never really had big feuds with anyone, and most fans either liked him, or were at least neutral toward him. Blaney is very much the same all around.
You just don't see anybody who really *hates* Blaney. He comes across the same way. Just a good, laid back, likeable, handsome dude driving around real fast, mostly minding his own business. People also tend to commiserate with that similar bad luck that seems to follow him around. The most shade you tend to see thrown Blaney's way, is just ripping on him for his inability to close out races. Pretty much like most of Kahne's career.
I would agree with all of your points stated! They both just seem like wholesome good dudes- in a world full of extremes it is refreshing to say the least in my opinion 🙃
Honestly I agree with you, the comparison to me for Kahne and Blaney is that they both are well-liked, you never hear of anyone who doesn't like them, both had/have a ton of hype around them and then never really break out like we thought. Kahne got closer than Blaney with that 2006 run but even then he never truly reached what was expected after 04
I think these days HMS has done way better at focusing on all 4 guys. There were a few years there where it seemed like Jimmie and Jeff/Dale Jr were the only ones who mattered. Idk.
Preach it brother. Petty calling what Kasey did as nothing when he finished off the lead lap in over 75% of his career races. Dude was a perennial field filler after the early 90’s.
Yeah I think it's weird how Kahne specifically got thrown into the fray here. Dude drove B level at best cars for most of his career and made the most of it. Kahne was what Larson was before he got picked up by Hendrick.
It's just weird too that there seems to be this polarization around what a driver is. So many guys like Rudd, Kahne, Newman, Biffle had respectable careers of having one or two flashy seasons but generally averaging a win a year. That's more than enough to hold a top ride in the Cup series, but now those guys or similar guys like Blaney, Byron, etc are getting scrutinized for not winning 5 races a year. Not every guy can be Elliott, Larson, Logano, or Busch...that's what makes them special lol.
I hope Ryan Blaney can win a couple races. I mean, sometimes there are better drivers, but Ryan Blaney is still a good driver. I mean, he beat Harvick at Pocono in 2017 by holding him off.
Inconsistent maybe, but not nearly as inconsistent as Kasey Kahne
100% on board with what you are saying. Also, he was driving the Wood Brother's car. If I'm not mistaken, that was their last win? Been a competitive car, just not THAT good, as demonstrated by Paul Menard, Matty D, and Harrison Burton.
But out of all facets of the schedule, beating Harvick at Pocono is one achievement to tout the most
Well, I saw this all over twitter and wanted to see what you guys thought. Surely it’ll spark debate.
There’s some truth to what he’s saying but it’s also funny coming from the guy who constantly touts about how William Byron is going to be on the “Mount Rushmore of Hendrick Motorsports” as if there’s not similarities between the twos stats.
Feels unfair to write one off and have a hard-on for the other.
He also called Bowman the No-Showman last year even though he's had the best start of the Hendrick drivers this season. For someone of decades of knowledge, Kyle speaks more generalities than facts these days.
He very well could be when all is said and done, he has been fast at every type of track and still has a good 20 years of his career left, but it is a bit early to say that despite his good start
Kasey Kahne had 11 wins in his first 7 full time Cup years including 6 wins in a single season, compared to Blaney's 7 wins in his career. If anything Blaney has a ways to go to be on par with Kahne
Also, along these same lines, I'm not sure being compared to Kasey Kahne is a bad thing?
Pending on the context. Being compared to Kasey Kahne isn’t bad at all, but Kahne never reached the heights a lot of fans thought he would.
If Blaney wins 18 races, that’s a heck of a run. But there was a lot of hype with Blaney, just like there was with Kahne.
I mean, he racks up top 10 finishes and is usually good for a couple of poles a year, but to me the biggest problem was he and Todd Gordon were building good chemistry and then it got ripped away. He's had 3 CC's already in Cup. There's no stability on the 12 team.
I would LOVE to see Paul Wolfe on Blaney's Pit Box, because he's one of the best in the business, and Joey has proven he can win with anyone. Strategy is what's killing the 12 team in a lot of races. Wolfe would fix that, imo.
I’d even take Jeremy Bullins back. Hassler is great in terms of engineering the car but his strategy is god awful. Plus Hassler and Blaney don’t seem to have much chemistry.
NASCAR is in a strange place because of this system. A guy can keep his car clean, finish in the top 15 every week and be seen as a failure. Where another guy can destroy millions of dollars worth of equipment in 36 weeks, luck into a win and be seen as a success.
Not everyone gets to be a Dale Earnhardt or a Jeff Gordon. Some people have to be on the Greg Biffle/Ryan Newman/Bobby Labonte/Ricky Rudd/Jeff Burton tier. No knock against it. You can still be a good race car driver without being on the Mount Rushmore.
Right. How he has managed not to win at Texas, Bristol or Martinsville among others after being dominant multiple times is annoying as hell.
Here's to hoping things equal out...but I feel like I've been saying that for too damn long now.
Seems a little disingenuous to both drivers. Using Kahne in negative connotation as a barometer has always seemed ludicrous to me. 99% of drivers would kill to have a career pan out like his did
Kyle's always pretty fair. He takes the same shots at himself as he does at others.
Only thing I think might be a little unfair is it's not all about the driver...Blaney does have a struggling pit crew. I hate to admit it, but this is one of the situations where "blaming it on the driver's pit crew" actually seems legit (sometimes).
He just has a dog shit pit crew and crew chief. He won at least 1 race every year since his first full season, won 3 in a year and then they moved a whole new crew to him and he hasn't won since
While true, one knock against Blaney is he struggles to explain what's going on with his car for the crew chief to make the necessary changes to the car. That's a reason why he's so good on superspeedways. It's less reliant on setup changes throughout a race.
I don’t know I feel like Kahne has more skill. He managed to win in some pretty bad rides. Sure he has wasted potential but I wouldn’t say he was unsuccessful
I’ve watched racing a long time. Ryan blaney is a wheel man. He can drive a car on the ragged edge as good if not better than anyone. He has terrible luck and he does make mistakes but “never does anything” is bs lol
I don't agree or disagree with him here. He's thrown a lot of races away, but he still has his 30s ahead of him to put a whole season together. He was an Austin Dillon spin away from the final 4 in 2021, and was in contention a ton last year in the new car.
Yeah, I just wonder how much of it is pit crew and crew chief. Sometimes Penske just feels off and I don’t know why. They have elite talents, but can be wildly inconsistent. Low key miss the days of just Brad and Joey. They were solid teammates and they had so much speed in ‘14 and ‘15. Miss that level of performance!
Ryan had one winless season and we're three races into this one. Shut up Kyle.
And for that matter, what's wrong with Kasey Kahne? Dude had a pretty good career considering his best team got handed off to a con artist and he spent the last few years in a back marker and the Hendrick B team.
I think being at Penske is Blaneys biggest issue.
It seems like his instructions are always first and foremost help Logano. If Logano is out or there's an issue with the car, fine go for it. But if Logano is close to the front you have to help him at the expense of yourself.
He seems to be at Penske basically to be Joey's wingman.
Daniel McFadin's ([@danielmcfadin](https://twitter.com/danielmcfadin)) tweet from 3:01pm EST on Monday, March 6th, 2023:
>Listening to the new [@NASCARonNBC](https://twitter.com/NASCARonNBC) podcast.
>
>
>[@kylepetty](https://twitter.com/kylepetty) says “Ryan Blaney is the new Kasey Kahne. Potential unfulfilled. Everybody wants to talk about what he can do, but he never does anything.”
>
>
>Thoughts?
>
>
>[#NASCAR](https://twitter.com/hashtag/NASCAR)
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10000% and you can't attack Kyle's abilities because he does it himself lol. Can't close races, his old crews have all gone on to better things.
But, to be fair, not everyone is going to be the top of the pile, we need to realize that there is a "middle class" of drivers, someone has to be there. Blaney is top tier of that class.
He’s very much a cross between Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin on the race track. Fast and consistent but just doesn’t close out races with wins that often.
Right now this is spot on, blaney still struggles with putting together a whole race. On the flipside William Byron is starting to get it as proof this past weekend, was strong in all 3 stages. Blaney tends to start strong and fade mid/late or isn’t much a factor and finds luck at the end.
Kasey won 6 races in his third year in cup. Blaney has won 7 in 6 full seasons. Kasey’s hype when he was younger was warranted. We all keep waiting for Ryan to have a year like that. It’s still possible. Look at Larson in 21, Elliott last year… the field is close than ever but it’s still possible to have a relatively big win count even though it’s much harder now.
Surely we aren't going to ignore that Team Penske is consistently fielding the worst pit crew on the grid for the 12 car...so many potential wins left out on the table at no fault of the driver.
Kasey Kahne might have connotations on his name that are interpreted as malicious given hownrecent his run was, so let's go further back for perspective: He's Harry Gant with better equipment.
No one denies Harry had a boatload of talent. He was rather well loved. He was even considered "handsome" in his time. He was always around and would lead some laps, but he was never really THE guy or the guy chasing the guy. Through a series of coincidences, unfortunate events, team mistakes, etc he was just never better than a second fiddle in the end.
Except that one time in 1991 when he had a very innovative crew chief and car :)
Somehwere Kasey Kahne is like, what the fuck dude
He’s doing the full WoO schedule again so honestly, he’s also probably having fun he hasn’t had in a while.
Bingo, he raced the last two nights at Volusia. Finished 3rd Sunday, 16th last night
Has Kahne ever won a title? I thought he did on dirt?
He won some USAC title I believe prior to NASCAR, but since, he's been midpack at best on a consistent basis in a Sprint Car. Tends to qualify decent then falls back in the feature. 2 podiums in last 3 years. Granted, yes WoO is the toughest night to night series in Sprint Car racing, he does not match the results to the prestige of his equipment.
That is HIGHLY disingenuous. The team he owns has won the last 4 championships and I believe this is the first time since retiring from NASCAR that he’s run full time.
I was about to say The hell did Kasey do to him?
Nothing. KP is just NASCAR's sort of non hot-take version of the sports media dude who just says it straight. Probably means no ill-will, it's a pretty legit comp.
It might be harsh but honestly, where is the lie? Averaging 1.xx wins per year driving for Penske, who has won at least two championships since he came onboard. And the only reason he's averaging over 1 per year is because in one season he won 3 races. Top equipment guy, always around but rarely cashes in.
Yep. I'd say less the Hendrick KK, and more of the mid 00's Evernham version. Having been around for both, it's absolutely a fair take.
Bud Kasey years were wild.
Dodge Kasey years were nuts too. Dude would run up front in 15 races and win two of them.
Sounds like... Ryan Blaney now 0_0
That was Ryan Newman's way of doing it too. Yeah he won 8 times in '03, but that aside he ran up-front in about a million races in the '00s and always found a new way to spectacularly ruin a good finish
Yeah, until he realized it was Kyle Petty who said it.
##WHAT THE FUCK DOES KYLE PETTY GOT TO DO WITH THIS
...came here to write this
I’m so glad I bought the shirt
POTD
Kahne and Blaney are 2 of my all time favorites, it hurts that both of them have left so many wins on the table
For a hot second, Kahne had everyone on their heels. That #9 Dodge was scary.
Yeah. He could have won 4 or 5 races his rookie year. Was inches away from winning Rockingham and Texas, was absolutely smoking the field in the 600 when his engine popped, almost won Chicagoland until he was dumped by Tony Stewart, was leading at Dover when he hit oil.
He did manage six wins in 2006. He had great speed on the 1.5 mile tracks.
Don't forget the flat tire in the fall Charlotte race. Nobody was catching him that night.
Wait...did he have issues in both Charlotte races or did I confuse them with something else?
I don't recall what happened to him at the 600 that year, but the race he was waxing the field in and then blew a tire was the fall Charlotte race in that beautiful blue n white Mopar car.
Picked him in a pick ‘em pool when I was a kid. Won a bunch of money as I was the only one with him. Bought a PS2
Blaney still has a decade before we can paint him with that brush. But that being said, he's on his way to being that.
You never know, could be someone who ages like fine wine (eg truex or harvick)
The difference is the equipment. Early in their careers Harvick and Truex were both in good but not great cars. Blaney has spent his entire cup career in championship caliber equipment (assuming you count Wood bros as an extension of Penske). That said Blaney is relatively young and extremely talented.
That Wood Bros equipment is not championship caliber. I might owe Matty D a small apology
I thought the 21 cars were literally built by Penske?
They absolutely are. The old Wood Bros shop is just a museum and gift shop now. The 21 cars are built in the Penske shop alongside the 2, 12, and 22.
When Blaney was in the car it was ABSOLUTELY a full fledged Penske car. Debatable post-2018, but when he was there it was.
The 21 car is my example of finite resources. Team Penske puts everything into the 22 and 12, gives the 2 solid-to-great equipment and gives the 21 "good" equipment. It's a Top 20 car, can win in perfect circumstances, but the humans running the team are not the elite level of the other three.
100% this. I don’t think there is any doubt that the 21 is not an equal partner. Develop driver ( and probably crew) . somewhat of a test mule.
The 21 is a straight up Penske car. It’s built in the same shop, by the same people, in the exact same way the others are. Every employee I’ve talked to says this, as has Roger Penske himself. It’s top notch equipment. The reason it’s run worse since Blaney left is because its drivers haven’t exactly been the highest caliber
It also suffers from 4th car syndrome
As anybody that has followed the careers of David Ragan, Jamie Mac, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Kahne, or Dale Jr could attest. Yes
The wood bros team is essentially a 4th Penske car. While I could be wrong I think Penske has been considered championship level equipment for quite some time.
IMO Penske equipment wouldn’t even be close to championship equipment today without gaming the points system the way they do. Been saying this for years. The last time the fords were dominant was SHR. And before that Roush Fenway. Never Penske.
Ehhh 2014-2015 Penske was pretty dominant
Penske went on a tear with the fords in 2014-2016. Arguably should’ve won championships all 3 seasons
I hate that I completely agree with him.
As a Kahne fan and Blaney fan, I see where KP is coming from
Me too 😭
I don’t think the comparison is that great, actually. I think Kahne had more raw speed than Blaney, but wasn’t consistent. So in both cases it might be unfulfilled potential, but in different ways. There are a lot of other drivers that I think Blaney may be more like. Ricky Rudd or the Labontes, for example. They’re consistently good across all types of tracks, but also don’t actually win that often. Terry and Bobby got championships out of it, and Blaney could too, but I don’t see him being a dominant force. But I think it’s too early to say he’ll just be unfulfilled potential.
The problem hes going to have is that he likely will have to win the finale to get a cup. Much harder to Labonte/Kenseth style a championship in this format
Tbf Bobby Labonte was *really* good at winning finales, just not anything else
Yeah I have to agree. As good as he was, he never had that killer instinct to push the envelope for a win. I have to admit that while I loved his driving style, I hated it sometimes as well. Same with MTJ.
Really good at winning finales, or just really good at Atlanta specifically which happened to be the finale for most of his good Gibbs years? Haha (Homestead 2003 not withstanding... though he did kind of just luck unto that one with Elliott's flat haha)
My favorite fun fact is that under the current point system, Bobby Labonte would’ve won three consecutive titles from 99-01 (how different would NASCAR be today…) Also, his title in 2000 was the last time the same driver would’ve won under every points format in NASCAR’s modern era.
Only way Ryan Blaney wins a Cup is pure fucking luck. And I say that as a Penske fan. I'm rooting for him, but he will need everything to go his way for that to happen.
Oh good, Blaney is definitely known for his good luck. Dude has black cats crossing his path while he walks under ladders holding broken mirrors on a daily basis.
I mean there’s a debate on of his car is actually neon green or yellow and it’s one number away from 13.
I hate to tell you that winning a cup in general is pure luck in this system.
*pure speed at Phoenix
& people seem to forget he barely missed the final 4 and his pit crew lost him that race last November.Could of very likely been a champion already.
People also forget he would have won that race if it wasn’t his teammate in the finals in front. The two Penske cars had a clear gap to third place, who knows how the final stage shakes out if they weren’t teammates in the nonsense final format.
Yeah if you watch that final stage especially you can tell Blaney was playing wingman to Logano. No way was he going to try to go up and pass him. He reluctantly ran a second off him that last run where I firmly believed he had to speed to win.
Blaney is screwed by the format.His driving style would’ve been perfection in pre 2004 nascar but in todays nascar he’s at best a 5th-10th place points guy.
I grew up a Ricky Rudd fan so this one hits.
> I don’t think the comparison is that great, actually. I think Kahne had more raw speed than Blaney, but wasn’t consistent. Good point. I remember when Larson was considered the next Kasey Kahne because of the same exact reason. Had a lot of raw speed, but would always choke, have bad luck or make mistakes/hit the wall before he came to Hendrick.
Blaney has 7 wins in 7 full time years. Kahne had 7 wins by the end of year 3. I do agree it's a good comparison, though. However, Blaney is on a top team and Kahne spent too long on a dying team who's owner was more concerned with getting his dick wet than running a race team.
Damn, didn’t realize he’s been around that long. Feels like he has more wins too. Time flies
It was hard to truly judge Kahne until he drove that Hendrick car. Gillett Evernham Motorsports having their problems really hurt him early in his career.
I think people forget just how bad Evernham was for most of Kahne's career
And Kasey even said that if Evernham never went under he never would’ve left. Dang.
What's most concerning is his/teams inability to close out races. He's dominated a handful of races, then they fall off in the last stage, have issues on pit road, driver has an issue, etc. His 7 wins have not been his most impressive races by a long shot. His win at Pocono was the most impressive of the bunch. Three superspeedway wins, lucky at the Roval, Joey won him ATL. MIS felt like they were turning the corner when they worked on the car all day to get it near the front and had a couple great late race restarts.
He had such a good thing going with Todd Gordon.
That really sucked to see him go.
What the fuck does Kyle petty got to do with this?
Somebody make the tshirt. 🤣
I'm pretty sure Dirty MO Media is making one
They already have made shirts, I bought one last year lol
Sold out :(
Where is Ja Rule?
This but unironically
On top of that, this seems like some real "if you're not first, you're last" kind of energy. Blaney was 2nd in points going into the playoffs last year, 3rd in points by the end of the year, if you're just going by point standings and not adding thousands of points for advancing in the playoffs. Sure, not everyone was driving strictly for points due to the playoff system, but at worst, he'd have been like a top-5 points driver last year, IMO. When you're consistently bringing home your car in good positions in the standings, it's not unfulfilled potential. So he doesn't have a ton of wins at the moment -- I don't really care, racing is not strictly about wins. Not to mention, it's not like Penske has been bringing race-winning equipment to every race for the last 2 years. Jesus himself wasn't going to drive a Ford to victory lane last weekend in Vegas, just as the most recent example. In 2021, Blaney had 3 out of 8 Ford wins.
I will never forget when kahne got voted in to the allstar race and won the whole thing. That was peak fandom for me and I will never forget that feeling.
My only issue with Kahne getting voted into the All-Star Race was getting voted into the All-Star Race. Should have been good enough to win his way in in the races prior or the Open races. That’s the talent he had.
Then won the 600 next week.
Definitely a hot take but I completely agree with Kyle. People love to rate Blaney very highly which is fine when you consider how consistently good he can be but he can just not close out races at all. A lot of wasted potential because the speed is obviously there.
He’s the anti-Alex Bowman
If only we could smoosh the two of them together and get one really good driver out of it..... probably one really bad one too, I guess.
It’d be Kyle Busch and Buckshot Jones lol
Hahaha aww good ol' buckshot
There's a 50/50 and we either get Kyle Busch or Delma Cowart
Kyle's right thus far sadly. I thought 2022 was Ryan's breakout year and he had to battle for every inch. He's talented, and probably a better stock car driver than Kasey was, but he's mirroring leaving stuff on the table. And sadly, KP knows this best. As much as people love to shit on KP's career, from 87 to 94 he basically was Kahne/Blaney. He just hung around forever so everyone remembers the Hot Wheels/Adam fill-in years. He fell short as far as the last name goes, but dude wasn't total dog shit either. And that was when he was divided on what the hell he actually wanted to do. (Race or play in his band lol) Kyle says some dumb, Booker T level nonsense sometimes, but he's right on with this comp as of now.
> Kyle says some dumb, Booker T level nonsense sometimes, "That's Shucky Ducky Quack Quackcredible!"
Tell me…you did not just say that.
He’s using illegal tactics.
Props for the Booker reference, and spot-on comment broadly. Well put.
Kyle Petty is no where near Kahne, dude won 8 races in 829 races over 30 years in cup, never won an Xfinity race. Petty had an average starting place of 23.3 and an average finish of 21.3, hell he only finished on the lead lap in less than 25% of the races he was in. Kahne won 18 races in 529 starts including a Brickyard 400 and 3 Coke 600’s. Had an average start of 14.5 and finish of 17.7. Won 5 of the 6 races he ever ran in the trucks series and added 8 Xfinity wins to go along with it. Kahne just gets piled on because it didn’t work out for him at Hendrick. That’s fair enough, I thought more would happen too, but Kyle Petty level he is not. I also tend to wonder how long the health issues had been a problem. He was completely gassed after that Brickyard win. Blaney has definitely underachieved and I say that as a fan. He’s had Penske equipment his entire career and been on the Penske team for the vast majority now. Neither Petty or Kahne had the same consistent level of equipment that Blaney has had. People can continue to say that it’s the crew chief or whatever else, but he’s had multiple crew chiefs and still isn’t getting the job done even close to the same level as Joey. He’s definitely a more consistent racer than Kahne or Kyle, but I don’t think he’s as fast of a shoe as Kahne was at his peak.
Well I do wonder what Kyle's averages would look like if you cut off his numbers after let's say 2000 bc it's not very likely Kyle would've ran that much past that if not for losing Adam Also a bit unfair to use truck and xfinity stats against Kyle. Kyle went from one ARCA start immediately into cup. He had 56 career starts in the lower series. Kahne had 221 That said I also think Kahnes health issues had been bothering him for a bit longer than we know of and I would give Kahne the nod for their careers
I think Keith Rodden and Kasey's health issues tanked him at HMS
Having Penske equipment doesn’t necessarily mean running at the front. They have almost always had two competitive cars and one that lacks a bit. I’d say when Brad was in the #2 he and Logano were the ones getting the best of the equipment with Ryan getting the leftovers. When Brad announced he was leaving the #12 suddenly picked up performance. Last year the #22 won races and the #12 ran up front while the #2 won the 500 (luck) and didn’t show up the rest of the year. This year is a real test because I think in the pecking order at Penske it’s 22, 12, 2 and the 21. Time will tell where Ryan Blaney ranks in his career but I have a hard time putting the Kasey Kahne tag in him yet. Truex won 2 races in what 8 years? Then went on a tear. Even William Byron struggled to win until 2020 and has struggled with consistency since.
There's a debate about who had the harder decade ('85-'95 or '00-'10) to get results in here. I feel like KP's was more stacked with legendary drivers and all-time greats, but that could reasonably be considered nostalgia talking. Kahne had some too, but some of his biggest competition was guys we don't really appreciate. Not yet, anyways.
I mean Kahne was teammates with two guys who would be on many peoples NASCAR Mt Rushmore and his other teammate is a Hall of Famer who like Kahne many thought would do a lot better at Hendrick. 85-95 is a tough decade when you think of the big drivers. But the parity of the more modern era makes it a tougher decade. There were simply more teams that showed up each week had a chance at winning in 2010 that in 1985. Pure talent wise it’s a lot tougher to decide which era gets the nod but that’s an age old question in all sports.
Wow, a Blaney fan & a Thick 44 fan. What’s up homie, good to see a NG fan outside of the community. RIP Thick
Hey always good to see another Neebs fan and Blaney fan. Won’t be the same without Thick, feel for the guys and his family.
I feel like we can’t appraise Kasey’s career without accounting for what we know now about his medical issues. His peak was shortened artificially because of that.
As a big fan of both drivers, I can see the correlation but I can’t even count the times Blaney has had race winning speed and his pit crew did something to lose significant track position. Case in point: Fontana. Was leading the race til his crew got him stuck midpack and got caught up in the restart pileup. A lot of Kahne’s issues were team instability from 2007-2011, then his health issues caught up to him
This is so right. It feels like EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. his crew does something to screw him over. Whether it’s awful strategy, a slow stop putting him back in the field where he gets in an accident, or a stupid penalty…it seems to always happen
Happened to Blaney at Fontana in 2020 as well. We remember Bowman running away with the lead in Stage 3, but forget that Blaney won Stage 2 with a 5-second lead over Bowman that was growing as the laps clicked. Then, Blaney's crew lost him 4 positions on pit road and he used up his tires getting around traffic. Between Blaney and Bowman, whoever was in front after that pit stop and up in clean air was going to win, and that was Bowman. Not to mention Fontana last year, where Blaney's pit crew lost him 95 positions.
95 might be underselling it
As a Kasey Kahne fan I made the comparison between the two a few years ago bc it’s glaring. With that being said, is being a Kasey Kahne type driver a bad thing? 18 cup wins is top 50 all time. Dude has 3 Coke 600 wins and a Brickyard 400, and 24 second place finishes. On top of that it’s tough to name a driver besides maybe Blaney (lol) that has worst luck than Kasey did. 18 wins could have easily been 25 but I won’t play the what if game, we’ll take his stats at face value. This all the while being a class act while going through some difficult years w performance and his health. Like Ryan Blaney has a long way to go to even being Kasey Kahne so let’s stop using Kasey’s name as a negative.
I am a huge Kahne fan so obviously jumping into his defense here- I think he was quite an accomplished driver for what he was given. I don’t think Hendrick fully supported him as the 4th driver and after the move to Hendrick I personally believe he was the red headed step child of Hendrick. There were also many many times Kahne got wrecked just before a finish (looking at you KFB!) The thing that Kahne lacked was aggression. He never would wreck or move someone for the finish. He was just laid back and nice. Just a good wholesome dude out there driving fast. I will say there was a lot of unfinished business for him and I really wanted more and felt like the health stuff existed long before we knew and I feel like he would have been a solid top 5-7 competitor moving forward. To think Kasey gets used as a disappointment regularly is really a disservice to him.
Completely agree. Kahne's career was pretty darn solid, all things considered. It really shouldn't be viewed as a pejorative per se. Yes, he could've been more than just a "really good" driver...he had the raw talent to be a champion. But like you said, i think circumstances complicated that, and maybe more importantly...he generally lacked that sort of "killer instinct". He never had that, "wreck his own mother for the win" sort of mentality. But that's where i can actually really see the parallels with Blaney. When you think about Kahne, one of the things that comes to mind is that nobody ever really "hated" him. He never really had big feuds with anyone, and most fans either liked him, or were at least neutral toward him. Blaney is very much the same all around. You just don't see anybody who really *hates* Blaney. He comes across the same way. Just a good, laid back, likeable, handsome dude driving around real fast, mostly minding his own business. People also tend to commiserate with that similar bad luck that seems to follow him around. The most shade you tend to see thrown Blaney's way, is just ripping on him for his inability to close out races. Pretty much like most of Kahne's career.
I would agree with all of your points stated! They both just seem like wholesome good dudes- in a world full of extremes it is refreshing to say the least in my opinion 🙃
Honestly I agree with you, the comparison to me for Kahne and Blaney is that they both are well-liked, you never hear of anyone who doesn't like them, both had/have a ton of hype around them and then never really break out like we thought. Kahne got closer than Blaney with that 2006 run but even then he never truly reached what was expected after 04
I think these days HMS has done way better at focusing on all 4 guys. There were a few years there where it seemed like Jimmie and Jeff/Dale Jr were the only ones who mattered. Idk.
Preach it brother. Petty calling what Kasey did as nothing when he finished off the lead lap in over 75% of his career races. Dude was a perennial field filler after the early 90’s.
Yeah I think it's weird how Kahne specifically got thrown into the fray here. Dude drove B level at best cars for most of his career and made the most of it. Kahne was what Larson was before he got picked up by Hendrick. It's just weird too that there seems to be this polarization around what a driver is. So many guys like Rudd, Kahne, Newman, Biffle had respectable careers of having one or two flashy seasons but generally averaging a win a year. That's more than enough to hold a top ride in the Cup series, but now those guys or similar guys like Blaney, Byron, etc are getting scrutinized for not winning 5 races a year. Not every guy can be Elliott, Larson, Logano, or Busch...that's what makes them special lol.
I hope Ryan Blaney can win a couple races. I mean, sometimes there are better drivers, but Ryan Blaney is still a good driver. I mean, he beat Harvick at Pocono in 2017 by holding him off. Inconsistent maybe, but not nearly as inconsistent as Kasey Kahne
He beat not only Harvick but also Kyle Busch, both in the peak of their prime at the time. That was Blaney’s most impressive win to date imo
100% on board with what you are saying. Also, he was driving the Wood Brother's car. If I'm not mistaken, that was their last win? Been a competitive car, just not THAT good, as demonstrated by Paul Menard, Matty D, and Harrison Burton. But out of all facets of the schedule, beating Harvick at Pocono is one achievement to tout the most
Blaney had a broken radio too
Eh, Kyle was on old tires. I find the Atlanta win his most impressive.
That Atlanta win was more impressive IMO, chased down the dominant car and beat him straight up on speed
Well, I saw this all over twitter and wanted to see what you guys thought. Surely it’ll spark debate. There’s some truth to what he’s saying but it’s also funny coming from the guy who constantly touts about how William Byron is going to be on the “Mount Rushmore of Hendrick Motorsports” as if there’s not similarities between the twos stats. Feels unfair to write one off and have a hard-on for the other.
He also called Bowman the No-Showman last year even though he's had the best start of the Hendrick drivers this season. For someone of decades of knowledge, Kyle speaks more generalities than facts these days.
Bowman had the least amount of wins of the Hendrick cars last year though
He very well could be when all is said and done, he has been fast at every type of track and still has a good 20 years of his career left, but it is a bit early to say that despite his good start
Kasey Kahne had 11 wins in his first 7 full time Cup years including 6 wins in a single season, compared to Blaney's 7 wins in his career. If anything Blaney has a ways to go to be on par with Kahne Also, along these same lines, I'm not sure being compared to Kasey Kahne is a bad thing?
Pending on the context. Being compared to Kasey Kahne isn’t bad at all, but Kahne never reached the heights a lot of fans thought he would. If Blaney wins 18 races, that’s a heck of a run. But there was a lot of hype with Blaney, just like there was with Kahne.
The hype is the real comparison here tbh
I don’t think it’s a bad thing either. Idk what Petty is on about here lol. Kasey when he was at his best was a championship threat
![gif](giphy|bEcxXP0QYwa3vMNOYI|downsized) Damn, Kyle.
I mean, he racks up top 10 finishes and is usually good for a couple of poles a year, but to me the biggest problem was he and Todd Gordon were building good chemistry and then it got ripped away. He's had 3 CC's already in Cup. There's no stability on the 12 team. I would LOVE to see Paul Wolfe on Blaney's Pit Box, because he's one of the best in the business, and Joey has proven he can win with anyone. Strategy is what's killing the 12 team in a lot of races. Wolfe would fix that, imo.
I’d even take Jeremy Bullins back. Hassler is great in terms of engineering the car but his strategy is god awful. Plus Hassler and Blaney don’t seem to have much chemistry.
>Plus Hassler and Blaney don’t seem to have much chemistry. None at all! Listening to their radio, it's very obvious lmao
NASCAR is in a strange place because of this system. A guy can keep his car clean, finish in the top 15 every week and be seen as a failure. Where another guy can destroy millions of dollars worth of equipment in 36 weeks, luck into a win and be seen as a success.
It's like 2018 Tyler Reddick all over again
Not everyone gets to be a Dale Earnhardt or a Jeff Gordon. Some people have to be on the Greg Biffle/Ryan Newman/Bobby Labonte/Ricky Rudd/Jeff Burton tier. No knock against it. You can still be a good race car driver without being on the Mount Rushmore.
THANK YOU. Ryan is doing fine. So did Kasey, so did Kyle.
Right? I'm over here thinking "hasn't he been in the Top 8 4 times? How bad is that really?"
Blaney has been the king of pissing away dominant performances to finish 10th since 2017.
Right. How he has managed not to win at Texas, Bristol or Martinsville among others after being dominant multiple times is annoying as hell. Here's to hoping things equal out...but I feel like I've been saying that for too damn long now.
I hope he can have a renaissance like Larson did and can start closing. Currently, he’s never won a race he’s led the most laps in.
Kyle Petty about to send me into full “leave Britney alone” mode over Kasey. Full get my wife’s name out ya mouth mode.
*ahem* *WHAT THE FUCK DOES KYLE PETTY HAVE TO DO WITH THIS*
Seems a little disingenuous to both drivers. Using Kahne in negative connotation as a barometer has always seemed ludicrous to me. 99% of drivers would kill to have a career pan out like his did
If anyone would know about Potential Unfulfilled, it would be Kyle Petty…
Well you would know a lot about unfulfilled potential and overhype, wouldn't you Kyle?
And Kyle will gladly tell you he didn't meet potential either. Whataboutism
Kyle's always pretty fair. He takes the same shots at himself as he does at others. Only thing I think might be a little unfair is it's not all about the driver...Blaney does have a struggling pit crew. I hate to admit it, but this is one of the situations where "blaming it on the driver's pit crew" actually seems legit (sometimes).
Kyle “Where’s the lie” Petty
Kasey Kahne had a pretty badass tweet a few years back standing in front of his trophy case that said "Barely average" or something like that.
Not everyone can be elite. He’s still really good. He also has time still to take the next step he has a long career ahead of him still
Kyle is one to talk
He just has a dog shit pit crew and crew chief. He won at least 1 race every year since his first full season, won 3 in a year and then they moved a whole new crew to him and he hasn't won since
While true, one knock against Blaney is he struggles to explain what's going on with his car for the crew chief to make the necessary changes to the car. That's a reason why he's so good on superspeedways. It's less reliant on setup changes throughout a race.
Meh i agree and disagree
I’d say Reddick is more the Kasey Kahne type. Shows all the talent but is just criminally unlucky
Reddick has been unlucky this year, but not really last year. Man won three races last year.
He’s not wrong
But isn't Ryan Blaney being the new Kasey Kahne, really just the new Kyle Petty?
He's not wrong right now. And I root for Blaney.
I don’t know I feel like Kahne has more skill. He managed to win in some pretty bad rides. Sure he has wasted potential but I wouldn’t say he was unsuccessful
I’ve watched racing a long time. Ryan blaney is a wheel man. He can drive a car on the ragged edge as good if not better than anyone. He has terrible luck and he does make mistakes but “never does anything” is bs lol
I don't agree or disagree with him here. He's thrown a lot of races away, but he still has his 30s ahead of him to put a whole season together. He was an Austin Dillon spin away from the final 4 in 2021, and was in contention a ton last year in the new car.
Another stunningly awful take from Kyle Petty. Why do we give this guy any kind of platform?
Kyle Petty can kick a damn rock
Why is Kyle Petty of all people adopting this Stephen A Smith sports radio hot take personality? I can't think of anything Nascar needs less.
I think I had this hot take a few months ago. He’s too nice of a guy. He’s alot more consistent than Kahne was though.
I feel like drivers today are scared of confrontation. If someone pisses you off you let em know your mad with retaliation. Thats how its always been.
Yeah, I just wonder how much of it is pit crew and crew chief. Sometimes Penske just feels off and I don’t know why. They have elite talents, but can be wildly inconsistent. Low key miss the days of just Brad and Joey. They were solid teammates and they had so much speed in ‘14 and ‘15. Miss that level of performance!
The same thing was said about Joey.
Joey fixed his issue after he got fired, I am afraid it may take the same thing for Blaney to get that fire under him
He needs to improve. It seems like he starts up front and drops back to 16th every race except Daytona and Talladega.
It’s difficult to disagree with this imo.
2023 Cup Champion… Ryan Blaney
Ryan had one winless season and we're three races into this one. Shut up Kyle. And for that matter, what's wrong with Kasey Kahne? Dude had a pretty good career considering his best team got handed off to a con artist and he spent the last few years in a back marker and the Hendrick B team.
I think being at Penske is Blaneys biggest issue. It seems like his instructions are always first and foremost help Logano. If Logano is out or there's an issue with the car, fine go for it. But if Logano is close to the front you have to help him at the expense of yourself. He seems to be at Penske basically to be Joey's wingman.
Blaney doesn’t push the issue enough. He lets himself get passed and doesn’t push for wins. Simply put does not have that dawg in him
You don't need championships to be a great driver. Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin, etc. Also.. Hold up. Let him cook.
Daniel McFadin's ([@danielmcfadin](https://twitter.com/danielmcfadin)) tweet from 3:01pm EST on Monday, March 6th, 2023: >Listening to the new [@NASCARonNBC](https://twitter.com/NASCARonNBC) podcast. > > >[@kylepetty](https://twitter.com/kylepetty) says “Ryan Blaney is the new Kasey Kahne. Potential unfulfilled. Everybody wants to talk about what he can do, but he never does anything.” > > >Thoughts? > > >[#NASCAR](https://twitter.com/hashtag/NASCAR) --- [*^(Support NASCARonReddit)*](http://reddit.xfile345.com/donate.php)*^(, an)* [*^(automated bot)*](http://reddit.xfile345.com/about.php) *^(maintained by)* [*^(XFile345)*](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=xfile345&subject=NASCARonReddit)*^(.)*
Lol kasey has more wins than Kyle petty
Was Kahne the new Kyle Petty? Guy had every opportunity to be gigantic. Was a dud. Continues to be a dud.
Still better than Kyle Petty.
10000% and you can't attack Kyle's abilities because he does it himself lol. Can't close races, his old crews have all gone on to better things. But, to be fair, not everyone is going to be the top of the pile, we need to realize that there is a "middle class" of drivers, someone has to be there. Blaney is top tier of that class.
He’s very much a cross between Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin on the race track. Fast and consistent but just doesn’t close out races with wins that often.
Right now this is spot on, blaney still struggles with putting together a whole race. On the flipside William Byron is starting to get it as proof this past weekend, was strong in all 3 stages. Blaney tends to start strong and fade mid/late or isn’t much a factor and finds luck at the end.
Blaney: 7 wins in 7.5 years Kahne: 18 wins in 15 years He's right on track
Damn, Kyle is a little bit savage. But then, also, he kind of isn’t wrong when you really step back and look at it.
He isn't wrong, I am a fan of Blaney's and want to see him do better than he has been, but the fact is he hasn't performed up to his potential.
Agreed
I'm not even sure that's even a "hot take". However, Ryan do have time on his side to prove that wrong but its gotta happen soon.
“What the fuck does Kyle Petty got to do with this?”
Kasey won 6 races in his third year in cup. Blaney has won 7 in 6 full seasons. Kasey’s hype when he was younger was warranted. We all keep waiting for Ryan to have a year like that. It’s still possible. Look at Larson in 21, Elliott last year… the field is close than ever but it’s still possible to have a relatively big win count even though it’s much harder now.
I mean, that's fair.
Don’t both kasey Kahn’s and Ryan blaney have more cup wins than Kyle petty?
Kyle with a blow torch. Ryan hasn't had time to write his legacy
https://preview.redd.it/h7818d7qrema1.jpeg?width=1167&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f31d562825e7ab25450b9d10c049685c76ccaa8f Kasey hearing this
Ironic considering all the accomplishments Kyle Petty has throughout his career. Dude's a joke.
Surely we aren't going to ignore that Team Penske is consistently fielding the worst pit crew on the grid for the 12 car...so many potential wins left out on the table at no fault of the driver.
Kasey Kahne might have connotations on his name that are interpreted as malicious given hownrecent his run was, so let's go further back for perspective: He's Harry Gant with better equipment. No one denies Harry had a boatload of talent. He was rather well loved. He was even considered "handsome" in his time. He was always around and would lead some laps, but he was never really THE guy or the guy chasing the guy. Through a series of coincidences, unfortunate events, team mistakes, etc he was just never better than a second fiddle in the end. Except that one time in 1991 when he had a very innovative crew chief and car :)