Watch: Ryan Blaney Snub Daytona 500 from No. 1 While Ranking NASCAR Crown Jewel Races

NASCAR has 36 races on a host of different tracks every season. Out of these, there are some that are cherished more than the rest. Usually, the Daytona 500 remains on the top of the list for fans, drivers, and pundits alike. However, Team Penske star, Ryan Blaney seems to think otherwise.

The Ford driver was asked to list down the crown jewels of NASCAR according to him. Ryan Blaney reckoned that he finds four races worthy of such a tag. Though, the Cup series star seemed to be in a mood to create controversy.

Not only did Blaney push the Daytona 500 from the number one spot for the Coca Cola 600, he even put Darlington’s Southern 500 ahead of the superspeedway. The Brickyard 400 at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway rounded up this list.

To me personally, there’s four crown jewels. I know a lot of people won’t probably agree with that, but it’s, you know, Daytona, Darlington, Coke 600 and Indy. I put Indy in there. It’s just always been in my mind, that’s what it is. I definitely think that’s like, I don’t know. I mean, that’s, it’s, to me, it’s second. To me, I feel like it’s Coke 600, Darlington, Coke 600, Daytona, then Indy. That’s kind of my list of like, yes.

Ryan Blaney told SiriusXM.

Perhaps Ryan Blaney understood that he would likely have a target on his back from keyboard warriors online. The Team Penske driver tried to tone down the importance of this list, highlighting that at the end of the day, it was just his personal opinion.

Yeah, you know, I’m gonna be honest with you. It don’t matter if it’s number one, two, three, four, I’m gonna get flack for it. That’s just the way it goes.I wanna get flack for having four of my crown jewels. But that’s just my personal ranking system of races.

Ryan Blaney explained.