Blaney sees strengths to Chase format despite Reddick’s dominance

Tyler Reddick continues to run away and hide with the NASCAR Cup Series championship point lead, and at least one of his competitors is not going to whine about it.

“I think it’s been great,” said Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney when asked if that’s a good thing to see in the first year of a new format.

Blaney is fourth in the standings and 162 points behind Reddick. The gap between Reddick and second-place Denny Hamlin is 129 points.

The dominance of Reddick and his 23XI Racing team has surprised many, Blaney believes. NASCAR re-introduced the Chase this season in response to criticism of how a champion was being determined, and in hopes of getting the garage and the fan base to buy back into the system. And now Reddick is already seemingly out of reach for the regular season.

Reddick has an average finish of 5.7 through 12 races, with the next-closest driver, Hamlin, having one of 9.9. He has five wins, three poles, and leads the series with nine top-10 finishes. And Reddick has completed 100% of the laps run.

“I had a great talk with Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. when I was on his show last week, and Dale loves this format,” Blaney said. “He is watching like a hawk during the races from an outside perspective, knowing where everyone is sitting in points, and if this guy has a bad day, man, that’s really going to hurt. If this guy has a good day, he’s going to jump up a lot in the standings. Then just little battles beyond.

“Like, if I’m racing with guys that I’m around in points, I know what I’m going for if I’m running around (Chase Elliott) or (Denny Hamlin) or something like that. Those are hard battles because I’m like, ‘Man, I just need to outpoint this guy. I can creep back in on him.’ I think it just adds a bigger element to that side of it, which is good. I think it’s really interesting to be a part of. I hope it’s been good to watch, and I think the people have liked it. So, I think it’s doing what it needs to do, and we’ll see where it is.

An emphasis was placed back on winning and consistency with the Chase format, even adding more points for victories. Reddick is proving that performance is rewarded handsomely. There will also be no reseeding when the Chase starts, so every point and every position matters to be as close to the leader as possible for the final 10 races.

NASCAR modeling shows that the top three drivers will have the best chance of winning the championship. Realistically, those in the top six should also have a chance.

“I think the big storyline now is, can anyone eat into Reddick’s lead?” said Blaney. “That’s another storyline that’s been pretty big in my mind. Can anybody get there? We’ve got over half the regular season to get there, and maybe it’s possible, maybe not. Then you have all these really close battles. At the top, there are some gaps, but then you get like fifth on back, and it’s a dogfight, and around that cutline is a dogfight.

“It’s interesting to watch back the races of how that stuff goes, because I watch battles when I rewatch the races on Sunday night and like I said, I know where the points are at, so I’m watching like, 'Oh, these guys were racing hard because they’re right next to each other in points. So they know every point matters when they’re racing around that guy.' I think it’s more exciting. You have to be more methodical on our side as we go into these races. I feel like it’s a little bit more important for us not to have failures, not to have mistakes, and I think the pressure is higher because if you have a bad day, it’s really going to hurt you.

“So, yeah, I’ve been really enjoying myself.”

Reddick leads Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Blaney and Chris Buescher in the standings. Ty Gibbs is sixth, and Carson Hocevar is seventh. The reigning champion, Kyle Larson, is eighth.

There are 14 races left in the regular season.