Watching Ryan Blaney go a bit off-character Sunday night — cool, laid-back Ryan was off-the-rails giddy after his win — it was natural to let a nagging little thought enter the brain.
“Ahem, bud, you might want to bottle the celebration until you pass post-race inspection.”
Perception is a strong foe these days for Blaney’s employer — Team Penske. And perception says the Penske team is a little loosey-goosey with the rulebook.
Fair? Not so much “down south” (as in NASCAR). Roger Penske’s reputational battle has come in the IndyCar side corner of his motorsports empire. And even there, the recent infractions were arguably more cosmetic than strategic.
But when you own a three-car race team, the entire IndyCar Series and the sport’s most famous track, the medicine is bitter but must be taken.
And so everyone waited Sunday night. It wasn’t an edge-of-the-seat type of waiting. Everyone went about their usual post-race business.
An hour or so after a race, usually after you’ve forgotten about the goings-on over in the tech garage, a NASCAR spokesperson will announce that the winner’s car has passed post-race inspection and the victory is official.
It’s generally routine, of course. Except this time, many must’ve delivered an exhale of relief.
With that out of the way, let’s catch up on things …
First Gear: A welcomed win for Team Penske
No, the recent problems for the Penske organization weren’t ignored during Blaney’s post-victory press conference.
Sure, he’s just one driver on the team’s four-car NASCAR roster (assuming you count the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 as a de facto Penske car, as you should). And the NASCAR team is just one facet of an organization that fields championship-caliber teams in IndyCar, IMSA and Europe’s World Endurance Championship.
Aside from a love of building and driving fast cars, they all seem to share an appreciation of their team surroundings and the owner — the “Captain” — who makes it all work. Blaney is no exception.
“We’re always supporting each other, and you want to win yourself,” Blaney said, “and you want to win for your team, but you’re also happy for Roger and everybody who is affiliated with the (No.) 2 or 12 or 22 or 21, just to have their hands on everything, that they get to be successful, as well.”
Second Gear: Carson Hocevar claims another scalp
What to make of Carson Hocevar?
Ever since they invented green and checkered flags, the sport of auto racing has always had up-and-coming youngsters who eventually came and went. Their “rough around the edges” racing style was never honed a bit, and soon they were down the road with a trail of bent metal in the mirror.
Others have massaged the aggression and made a career of it. The jury is out on Hocevar, who posted his second runner-up finish of the season and, frankly, his first real one, since the other came in a “plate race” at Atlanta.
And for the second straight year, Hocevar roughed up a fellow racer in Music City. If you’re looking either for improvement or some added finesse, consider this: Last year, Hocevar spun Harrison Burton during a caution lap. He was later fined and penalized.
Sunday night, he didn’t appear to purposely wreck Ricky Stenhouse, but let’s just say he purposely didn’t go to great lengths to avoid tagging Ricky’s left-rear quarterpanel.
On the Amazon Prime broadcast, Junior Earnhardt spent a lot of time explaining that he likes Hocevar, but suggesting he needs to pick his spots — Stenhouse, it was pointed out, isn’t one of those spots he should pick.
But post-wreck, Ricky made it clear that it would be too expensive to stick around and defend his Garage Bantamweight Championship. His right-cross to Kyle Busch’s head last year cost him $75,000.
Third Gear: Kyle Larson passes Chase Elliott off the track, too
Here’s some marketing news that’s not really news — at least not yet — but could be news if trends continue.
A month away from the season’s midway point, NASCAR released its leaders in merchandise sales for 2025, and Chase Elliott isn’t the top driver. According to the Sports Business Journal, the reigning and seven-time Most Popular Driver didn’t slip far, however.
He’s currently second in sales behind Kyle Larson, but don’t look for that to hold. Larson was certainly boosted in sales due to his second attempt at the Indy-Charlotte double. Yeah, yeah, it’d help if Chase’s GPS would remind him of the whereabouts of Victory Lane.
The top 15 drivers were listed, and all but three are current Cup Series racers. Those three non-Cup racers are ranked eighth, ninth and 10th. In order, they’re Junior Earnhardt, Justin Allgaier (who drives an Xfinity car for Junior) and the senior Dale Earnhardt, who, like Elvis, Hank Williams and Edgar Allan Poe, continues piling up sales long after his untimely death.
Fourth Gear: Amazon delivers lots of laps
For those of you who, for a variety of reasons, haven’t watched the first two races of Prime’s five-race run, here’s some good news to soothe your frustration.
You’re not being spoiled by Prime’s lack of commercial interruptions.
As with Week 1, the Nashville race featured full commercial interruptions during the breaks after Stages 1 and 2. Other than that, commercials appeared on half the screen while the other half showed the race — and given the expansion of modern televisions, that half-screen is still bigger than your dad’s 1992 Zenith.
According to the folks at CawsNjaws, Nashville featured 198 minutes of race broadcast, with 38 minutes of side-by-side and just six minutes of full breaks.
Traditional, commercial broadcasts have no way of matching that. Not if they want to stay afloat.
— Email Ken Willis at [email protected]
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