{"id":919303,"date":"2026-10-03T17:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T17:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919303\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T17:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T17:16:10","slug":"ryan-blaney-growing-tired-of-nascar-rule-after-another-deep-chase-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919303\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Blaney Growing Tired of NASCAR Rule After Another Deep Chase Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Blaney<\/a> is pushing back again on the NASCAR<\/a> qualifying metric. The Team Penske<\/a> driver has started 24th or worse in three of the first four Chase races because of it.<\/p>\n

Blaney wants NASCAR to commit to one approach when weather cancels qualifying. He made his point plainly on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither just do one thing or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The metric takes 70% of a car\u2019s finish in the previous race and 30% of its owner points position. It normally sets the order for qualifying. When qualifying is canceled, it sets the starting lineup instead.<\/p>\n

Weather canceled qualifying at Darlington, Bristol and Kansas. That covers three of the first four races in the Chase. MotorBiscuit has broken down the metric\u2019s role in the Chase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blaney entered the Chase as the No. 2 seed. A last-lap wreck at Daytona left him 33rd in the regular-season finale. That result put him 24th on the grid at Darlington, where he finished fourth.<\/p>\n

Qualifying went ahead at World Wide Technology Raceway, and Blaney qualified third. A right-front brake rotor failed on Lap 155 while he ran sixth. He finished 35th.<\/p>\n

That finish put him 29th on the grid at Bristol. He led a race-high 202 laps and won Stage 2. Contact from Carson Hocevar<\/a> on Lap 458 sent him into the wall, and he finished 33rd. The two drivers then fought on pit road<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under the formula, that 33rd-place finish made up 23.1 of Blaney\u2019s 24.9 metric score for Kansas. His sixth-place points position added only 1.8. He started 25th and drove to fifth, scoring 37 points.<\/p>\n

Blaney\u2019s frustration showed before the Kansas race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got done saying last week, \u2018Oh, the metric is what it is.\u2019 And now I\u2019m starting to slowly hate it like you all for what\u2019s been happening to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 Chase<\/a> runs 10 races with no eliminations. Points are reset and seeded once at the start, and the driver with the most points after the finale wins the title. A poor finish stays on the board for the rest of the Chase.<\/p>\n

Starting deep also makes stage points harder to collect. Blaney has had to pass much of the field before he can race for those points.<\/p>\n

Not every driver has felt the metric the same way. Joey Logano<\/a> started 13th at Darlington, second at Bristol and first at Kansas. Logano told NASCAR.com the metric still rewards performance and that he personally does not have a huge issue with it.<\/p>\n

Others have been more critical. Kevin Harvick<\/a> said on his Happy Hour podcast that he hates the metric. He wants NASCAR to return to a random draw for qualifying order.<\/p>\n

NASCAR does not plan to change the system during the Chase. Mike Forde, NASCAR\u2019s vice president of racing communications, addressed the issue on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving two sets of rules within the 10-race Chase is something we want to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forde said a change this season is very unlikely, but he expects one in the offseason. MotorBiscuit has more on NASCAR\u2019s plans for the metric<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blaney joked about the weather after Kansas in comments to Racing America\u2019s Matt Weaver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just everywhere has its difficulties when you have to start in the back, and maybe it\u2019ll rain in Vegas, and we\u2019ll actually be benefited by the metrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blaney is fifth in the Chase standings, 91 points behind leader Kyle Larson<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Blaney is pushing back again on the NASCAR qualifying metric. The Team Penske driver has started 24th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,15224,82,5794],"class_list":["post-919303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-ryan-blaney","tag-sports","tag-team-penske"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}