3X Daytona Champ Dissects Ryan Blaney’s Costly Dale Earnhardt Mistake That Robbed Him of The Atlanta Crown

Published 02/27/2024, 4:37 AM EST

The 3-wide photo finish at the Atlanta Motor Speedway should never have happened as far as Ryan Blaney is concerned. When the white flag fell, it seemed inevitable that the reigning Cup Series champion would lay the marker down and win the second race of the season. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as Daniel Suarez beat him and Kyle Busch by 0.003 seconds and 0.007 seconds, respectively. Looking at how close of a margin it was, on a recent episode of The Kenny Wallace Show, it was revealed that Ryan Blaney might have been the culprit of his own demise. Even 3-time Daytona and Talladega winner Mike Wallace agreed as he doubled down on his take on a recent episode of his brother’s show on YouTube.

After the disappointment in the Daytona 500, the driver of the #12 Ford would have wanted nothing more than to get on victory lane immediately afterward. There was a lot of drive in Blaney to take the checkered flag but an error in judgment on the final lap cost him dearly by just a few centimeters. It just goes to show how competitive stock car racing is at the highest level.

Ryan Blaney should have kept it simple on the last lap in Atlanta

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At the end of the day, what really cost the reigning Cup Series champion was an Earnhardt-esque move which did not quite work out. The late great Dale Earnhardt had several tricks on the track that he used to catch his rivals off guard, but not everybody can do it as well as The Intimidator. Had the Team Penske man just kept it simple, perhaps he would be the one that had punched their tickets to the last 16 in just the second race of the year.

Former Cup Series Mike Wallace driver and Kenn revealed that Ryan Blaney was backing up to his competitors so that he could speed ahead and open up a gap towards the end of the lap. But that was a grave error.

“With Blaney driving into turn 1, I said by all rights he should win this thing but we’ll have to see what happens. They come off of 2, Blaney is stretched out a little bit, and come to find out Blaney tells everyone afterward he backed off the throttle a little bit trying to close the gap and they had the momentum on him,” he said.

“I tell you something, you hear that all the time. You’re playing the piano. That backing up, that’s like I’m so great, I’m gonna drag the brake and I’m going to back up, no. You’re allowing them to catch you and that’s art. Earnhardt did that, Gordon did it and all the drivers like I’m gonna back on up. Well back up but be careful,” his brother Kenny Wallace chimed.

At the end of the day, 0.003 seconds was all it took for Daniel Suarez to claim his first Cup Series win in well over a year at the expense of the reigning champion who must have rued his decision to back up.

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Reigning Cup Series champ falsely believed that he had it covered

In a post-race media interaction, the Team Penske star said that he felt like he held his competitors back enough to have a run to the checkered flag on the last lap. He moved to the inside of the track which was a safer option but if you’re not taking risks, you’re not gonna win at a superspeedway and that’s exactly what Daniel Suarez did. The outside line was the more advantageous option but also the most dangerous one.

“I thought I laid back enough in [Turns] 1 and 2 to kind of not let both lanes get that big of a run. I did that the three laps before the end, and I was able to kind of manage it fairly well, but they just got both lanes shoving super hard. I just chose the bottom. It’s the safest place to be. What a cool finish. … That’s a lot of fun. That’s always a good time when we can do that — race clean, three-wide finish to the end,” the Team Penske star said as per RACER.

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But no matter how cool a finish may be, the only thing a full-time Cup Series driver cares about is winning. Ryan Blaney would have swapped the 3-wide finish for a race win any day. The Team Penske star will have to come up with the goods the next time NASCAR goes racing which will be in Las Vegas.

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Written by:

Nilavro Ghosh is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports, where he is known for his creative yet easy-to-read writing style. Before taking up his role as a sports journalist at ES, Nilavro has written for some of the top publishing houses, like The Telegraph. While most journalists stop at covering live events and taking the news to the readers, Nilavro goes the extra mile to give fans a platform for them to express their thoughts through his 'race reaction' pieces.

Edited by:

Ariva Debnath

3X Daytona Champ Dissects Ryan Blaney’s Costly Dale Earnhardt Mistake That Robbed Him of The Atlanta Crown

Ryan Blaney should have kept it simple on the last lap in Atlanta

Reigning Cup Series champ falsely believed that he had it covered

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