When things haven’t gone catastrophically wrong for Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney in 2025, he has been tough to beat.<\/p>\n
The 2023 champion finished second in the regular season standings despite DNFs in more than a quarter of the regular season races, and he was the first driver to punch his ticket to the round of 8 by winning the round of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a win which was his ninth top eight finish in the 10 most recent races at the time.<\/p>\n
Though it’s been a rough go for Blaney as of late, with finishes of 24th place at Kansas Speedway and 13th at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval to conclude the round of 12, he retained his status as the favorite<\/a> to win the 2025 championship heading into the round of 8.<\/p>\n Following the pre-round of 8 points reset, he was second in the provisional Championship 4 picture<\/a>, and Team Penske’s history in the Next Gen era is hard to ignore. They are three-for-three in terms of winning championships, and Blaney nearly became the first repeat champion in the modern playoff era in 2024, placing second at Phoenix Raceway behind teammate Joey Logano.<\/p>\n Ryan Blaney drops out of Championship 4 picture at Las Vegas<\/p>\n But Blaney’s struggles continued in a way that hadn’t bitten him at any point over the past three months: an issue out of his control knocked him out of Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n Blaney was the first driver to retire from the race, so he was scored in 38th (last) place. By scoring just one single point on Sunday, he fell not only below the Championship 4 cut line but all the way down to eighth and last place in the playoff standings, putting him 31 points below where he needs to be<\/a>.<\/p>\n The good news for Blaney is that he has been here before. In 2023, he was disqualified from the Las Vegas round of 8 opener, and while that disqualification ended up being overturned, it didn’t matter; he won his way into the Championship 4 for the first time with a walk-off win at Martinsville Speedway to conclude the round of 8 anyway, and he went on to win the championship at Phoenix.<\/p>\n In 2024, he was well below the cut line after opening up the round of 8 with a 32nd place finish at Las Vegas. He again punched his Championship 4 ticket with a walk-off Martinsville win, though this time around, second place at Phoenix wasn’t quite enough to hoist another championship trophy.<\/p>\n Championship 4 picture taking shape<\/p>\n Aside from Blaney, there was one other driver who began the round of 8 above the Championship 4 cut line but is now below it, and that is Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who was taken out when Kaulig Racing’s Ty Dillon gave absolutely no indication whatsoever that he planned to come into the pits, causing a massive collision while Byron was running second and in contention for the win.<\/p>\n Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe both moved above the cut line, while teammate Denny Hamlin remained there by punching his first Championship 4 ticket since 2021 with the win. Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson also remained above the cutoff, while teammate Chase Elliott remained below it. Logano also remained below it.<\/p>\n Hamlin is the new championship favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook, followed by Larson and then Blaney. Full odds can be found here<\/a> and are always subject to change.<\/p>\n