Dale Earnhardt Jr. critical of Ryan Blaney lane choice: ‘Something’s going on with Blaney’

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is worried about Ryan Blaney after making a questionable choice during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. On Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt broke down Blaney’s lane choice that ultimately cost him the race.

“Ryan Blaney choosing the second row on the inside instead of starting next to [Kyle] Larson late in the race. And he got out and said, ‘Yeah, I messed up,'” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. The only type of driver that I see make that move and I go, ‘Oh, okay,’ is a guy like [Ross] Chastain. I know that he’s probably thinking, ‘I’m f***ing going three-wide here. But Blaney is not that guy. Blaney is not going to put his fellow competitors in a three-wide situation.

“…I feel like in those situations, I know you don’t love restarting on the outside, but I think you have to. You just have to do it. If we get a chance to see Blaney, we’ve got to ask him what’s going on. Something’s going on with Blaney.”

Ryan Blaney says he ‘can’t do anything right’

Before the mishap on the restart, Blaney was running second. When it was all said and done, his Penske teammate Joey Logano won the race, and Blaney finished third.

“The one time I didn’t pick the outside (lane), the 71 [Michael McDowell] got the lead and then I couldn’t get it back,” Blaney said after the race, per Motorsport.com. “Just (the) driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job … The 12-car was a fast car today. I just can’t do anything right currently. Hopefully, it will work itself out.”

It was a tough break for Blaney who has put together a solid season through 11 races. He has yet to win a race but has recorded four top-five finishes and a P7 finish in the Daytona 500. In the current playoff standings, Blaney sits in 10th place and is the third-highest-ranked driver without a win. In Cup points, Blaney is in seventh place.

Ryan Blaney has emerged as one of the top drivers in NASCAR. In 351 Cup Series races, the 31-year-old has earned 13 victories and finished in the top 10 153 times. He won the Coca-Cola 600 in 2023 and won the Cup Series title the same year.