Watching Ryan Blaney go a bit off-character — cool, laid-back Ryan was off-the-rails giddy — it was pure to let a nagging little thought enter the mind.
“Ahem, bud, you may wish to bottle the celebration till you go post-race inspection.”
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Notion is a robust foe today for Blaney’s employer — Crew Penske. And notion says the Penske workforce is just a little loosey-goosey with the rulebook.
NASCAR Cup Collection driver Ryan Blaney celebrates successful the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn., Sunday, June 1, 2025.
Truthful? Not a lot “down south” (as in NASCAR). Roger Penske’s reputational battle has come within the IndyCar facet nook of his motorsports empire. And even there, the current infractions had been arguably extra beauty than strategic.
However whenever you personal a three-car race workforce, your entire IndyCar Collection and the game’s most well-known monitor, the drugs is bitter however have to be taken.
And so everybody waited Sunday night time. It wasn’t an edge-of-the-seat kind of ready. Everybody went about their regular post-race enterprise.
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An hour or so after a race, normally after you’ve forgotten in regards to the goings-on over within the tech storage, a NASCAR spokesperson will announce that the winner’s automotive has handed post-race inspection and the victory is official.
It’s usually routine, after all. Besides this time, many should’ve delivered an exhale of aid.
With that out of the best way, let’s compensate for issues …
First Gear: A welcomed win for Crew Penske
No, the current issues for the Penske group weren’t ignored throughout Blaney’s post-victory press convention.
Certain, he’s only one driver on the workforce’s four-car NASCAR roster (assuming you rely the Wooden Brothers’ No. 21 as a de facto Penske automotive, as it is best to). And the NASCAR workforce is only one aspect of a company that fields championship-caliber groups in IndyCar, IMSA and Europe’s World Endurance Championship.
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Other than a love of constructing and driving quick automobiles, all of them appear to share an appreciation of their workforce environment and the proprietor — the “Captain” — who makes all of it work. Blaney is not any exception.
“We’re at all times supporting one another, and also you wish to win your self,” Blaney stated, “and also you wish to win on your workforce, however you’re additionally comfortable for Roger and all people who’s affiliated with the (No.) 2 or 12 or 22 or 21, simply to have their arms on every little thing, that they get to achieve success, as effectively.”
Second Gear: Carson Hocevar claims one other scalp
What to make of Carson Hocevar?
Ever since they invented inexperienced and checkered flags, the game of auto racing has at all times had up-and-coming children who ultimately got here and went. Their “tough across the edges” racing model was by no means honed a bit, and shortly they had been down the highway with a path of bent metallic within the mirror.
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Others have massaged the aggression and made a profession of it. The jury is out on Hocevar, who posted his second runner-up end of the season and, frankly, his first actual one, for the reason that different got here in a “plate race” at Atlanta.
And for the second straight 12 months, Hocevar roughed up a fellow racer in Music Metropolis. Should you’re trying both for enchancment or some added finesse, contemplate this: Final 12 months, Hocevar spun Harrison Burton throughout a warning lap. He was later fined and penalized.
Sunday night time, he didn’t seem to purposely wreck Ricky Stenhouse, however let’s simply say he purposely didn’t go to nice lengths to keep away from tagging Ricky’s left-rear quarterpanel.
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On the Amazon Prime broadcast, Junior Earnhardt spent a variety of time explaining that he likes Hocevar, however suggesting he wants to select his spots — Stenhouse, it was identified, isn’t a kind of spots he ought to choose.
However post-wreck, Ricky made it clear that it could be too costly to stay round and defend his Storage Bantamweight Championship. His right-cross to Kyle Busch’s head final 12 months value him $75,000.
Third Gear: Kyle Larson passes Chase Elliott off the monitor, too
Right here’s some advertising information that’s not likely information — no less than not but — however might be information if tendencies proceed.
A month away from the season’s halfway level, NASCAR launched its leaders in merchandise gross sales for 2025, and Chase Elliott isn’t the highest driver. In response to the Sports activities Enterprise Journal, the reigning and seven-time Most In style Driver didn’t slip far, nonetheless.
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He’s at the moment second in gross sales behind Kyle Larson, however don’t search for that to carry. Larson was definitely boosted in gross sales because of his second try on the Indy-Charlotte double. Yeah, yeah, it’d assist if Chase’s GPS would remind him of the whereabouts of Victory Lane.
The highest 15 drivers had been listed, and all however three are present Cup Collection racers. These three non-Cup racers are ranked eighth, ninth and tenth. So as, they’re Junior Earnhardt, Justin Allgaier (who drives an Xfinity automotive for Junior) and the senior Dale Earnhardt, who, like Elvis, Hank Williams and Edgar Allan Poe, continues piling up gross sales lengthy after his premature dying.
Fourth Gear: Amazon delivers a number of laps
For these of you who, for quite a lot of causes, haven’t watched the primary two races of Prime’s five-race run, right here’s some excellent news to assuage your frustration.
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You’re not being spoiled by Prime’s lack of economic interruptions.
As with Week 1, the Nashville race featured full business interruptions through the breaks after Phases 1 and a pair of. Aside from that, commercials appeared on half the display screen whereas the opposite half confirmed the race — and given the growth of contemporary televisions, that half-screen continues to be larger than your dad’s 1992 Zenith.
In response to the parents at CawsNjaws, Nashville featured 198 minutes of race broadcast, with 38 minutes of side-by-side and simply six minutes of full breaks.
Conventional, business broadcasts haven’t any manner of matching that. Not in the event that they wish to keep afloat.
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