Like every other year, the 2026 Daytona 500 was a crash-fest, where as many as 37 cars out of 41 were involved in minor or major wrecks. But while this upset many drivers, Ryan Blaney, in particular, was very vocal about a different issue — Toyota’s Daytona tactics, something that left fans frustrated too.

Ryan Blaney is upset with Toyota drivers

After the race, Blaney appeared for an interview with Noah Lewis on YouTube, where he unraveled his take on the Daytona 500. In the interview, Blaney stated that he had to go to the garage to fix his car following Stage 2 caution, which involved over 20 cars, and then had to return to the race at the end of the pack.

“We were up front a lot early, not at the end unfortunately,” Blaney said. “Spent some time fixing our car after the stage two cautions. Then we started in the back and then just kind of got trapped with the Toyotas running 52-second laps and road blocking the whole thing, and then never really jumped anything on the pit stop and just didn’t really go anywhere on the restart and got caught up in the wreck into one.”

Following this, the Team Penske star stated how the Toyota cars played their shenanigans, where they operated on 50-60 percent throttle to save fuel, and blocked the pack. This infuriated Blaney, to say the least.

“So really good day for the most of it, and then just at the end, just kind of couldn’t go back towards the front when everybody just kind of walking up the front of the field like that. Just so slow, and you can’t. It’s going to happen eventually. I mean, they’ve talked about it, Toyota has three cars and just blocked the whole field, and unfortunate.”

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Blaney, who finished the race in 27th place, summed up his statement that was a clear message to NASCAR: “We got to fix that. It’s pretty bad.”

Ryan Blaney’s comment comes after the Toyotas that were running up front, such as Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, and Riley Herbst, among many others, were found to be holding off the pack to save fuel during the Great American Race on Sunday.

This, in fact, is a common tactic of the Superspeedway racing where drivers save up fuel to avoid running out of gas during overtime. However, fans were furious, as they shared their reactions on social media.

They were of the opinion that NASCAR should increase the size of the fuel tank so that the manufacturers do not go for such practices which make the races ‘boring.’ Commenting on the same, a fan wrote, “the fuel conservation crap BLOWS! The whole field riding around at 50% throttle, 3 seconds off the pace, isn’t racing!”

On the other hand, the drivers behind cannot push the drivers in front, and if they do, they will just trigger a massive crash, which is unlikely to benefit any of the parties.

While the blocks and the wrecks didn’t benefit most of the drivers, it was the other way around for Tyler Reddick.

Reddick survived last lap chaos to claim Daytona 500 win

Tyler Reddick surprised everyone when he took the Checkered Flag in the Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway on Sunday. The 23XI Racing driver maneuvered amid the wrecks that unfolded in the last couple of laps, involving Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell, to take the victory.

“When you’re a Cup driver, and you get to this level and drive for Michael Jordan, it’s expected you win every single year,” Reddick, who was winless last year, said after the victory as he praised the 23XI Racing co-owner, Jordan.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, and Brad Keselowski finished the race in the top five, while Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Josh Berry, and Bubba Wallace completed the Top 10.