Dale Earnhardt Jr. declares he “would put money on Ryan Blaney” to win at least a race in the regular season

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on Ryan Blaney’s winless streak in the 2025 Cup season.


Dale Earnhardt Jr. declares he “would put money on Ryan Blaney” to win at least a race in the regular season

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Joey Logano (Via IMAGO)

Team Penske Racing’s Ryan Blaney has been one of the best racers if the Next-Gen era, with the 2023 Cup championship being the highlight. His consistent top-10 finishes over the years earned him the titles, not race wins. He has had slow starts to the last three Cup season, with the front row finishes not getting converted to wins and the same is happening in 2025.

From the first nine races of the season, Ryan Blaney has secured four top 10 finishes, with three of them being top 5 finishes that could have been wins if not for pit-stop mistakes from the team. Owing this past of Blaney, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., while assessing the No:12 teams 2025 season, pointed out that they are going to win at least a race in the regular season.

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Blaney running this well, running this quick early in the season is a good sign for that team. If I was a betting man on NASCAR, I would put money on Blaney winning before the end of the regular season.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.

Earlier talking on the same topic on his podcast, Junior highlighted the facts that the Penske cars are fast and well balanced, so they don’t need any major changes to the crew. The only adjustments require is with the pit-crew, who are underperforming and hinted that once that change is been made, their season will be back on track.

I would be resting on the fact that we’ve got speed. The speed in the cars are there. Let’s just keep doing what we’re doing, let’s not change anything. We may need to do some things different on pit road, we may need to move some people around on our crews, so forth, to try to find some balance. While Blaney may be struggling on pit road, his teammates might not all be struggling.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares the importance of pit-stops

When he started the discussion on Ryan Blaney on the podcast, Dale Jr. highlighted the importance of being solid on the pit-stops. He pointed out that if the drivers are consistently losing times in the pit, it is a concerning issue and requires hard conversations.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via Newsweek)

I think pit road is such a critical part of being successful. If you’re consistently seeing some issues there, they absolutely should be concerned and there should be some conversations, some hard conversations happening.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

Further talking about the point, he admitted that this situation isn’t too critical for the No:12 Ford team as they are fast on the race track despite not having any race wins. So they just have to clean up pit-stops to get back to winning ways.

I would say that the speed on the racetrack should allow them to have some confidence going forward. I know that they don’t have the wins, they’re leading all these laps.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

The comments from Dale Jr. shows Team Penske Racing, who has won all the championships of the Next-Gen era, is still the team to beat despite their winless streak. It would be interesting to see who among Austin Cindric, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney will get the team their maiden win of 2025 and when will it come.