Ryan Blaney shuts down question about Ross Chastain after on-track incident at Bristol

Just to point it out, Ross Chastain finished one spot above Ryan Blaney at the end of this race. The two came across the line P15 and P16, with the Trackhouse driver getting the better of the Team Penske champion.

This is the third race in a row where Chastain and Blaney have finished within one spot of each other. At Las Vegas, Blaney was P3, Chastain P4. Last week at Phoenix, the 12 finished P5 with the 1 finishing P6. Now, they have done it again, with Chastain on top this time.

When you race a guy that close week in and out, tempers can easily flare. Especially when Ross upstaged Blaney at his championship-clinching race last season.

Ryan Blaney struggles in tire management race

The drivers that finished up front, for example, the winner Denny Hamlin, were happy today. They loved the tire fall off. Those who succeeded will see this as a positive and will be ready to do it again as soon as they can.

For those like Ryan Blaney who had issues, and couldn’t stay in that ideal groove to make it work. So, he had a frustrating day that ended with a frustrating finish. A few drivers noted that it was a hard day but a fun day on the race track. Blaney was not among them.

So, what should NASCAR and Goodyear take away from this? Well, they need to find a sweet spot. 40 to 50 laps on a set of tires is probably too little. You don’t want that because it can cause major issues in regard to how many sets each team has.

There was a legit concern teams would run out of tires today. However, Goodyear gave each team an extra set and it was more or less fine. This race set a record for most lead changes on a short track in NASCAR history. If Goodyear can get a tire to go 70-90 laps on this track and recreate something similar on other tracks, then we have a recipe for racing gold.