Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims RFK Racing should be credited for Ryan Blaney’s championship triumph

RFK Racing has been the most improved team of the 2023 season.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims RFK Racing should be credited for Ryan Blaney’s championship triumph

Brad Keselowski, Dale Eranhardt Jr. and Ryan Blaney (Via IMAGO)

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. claims that Brad Keselowski’s RFK Racing should be credited for the championship triumph of Ryan Blaney in 2023. A massive turnaround at the end of the season after a long performance slump helped Team Penske racing to land back-to-back Cup titles in the Next-Gen era.

While Ford teams won all three national championships of the 2023 season, it was a tough ride for them. The journey was extra hard in the Cup series. Ford won just five races in the regular season and Blaney won two races in the playoffs on the way to winning the title. The Ford team’s incredible rise to success was inspired by the impressive season RFK Racing had.

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While discussing the domino effect RFK Racing’s success had on all the Ford teams, Dale Jr. pointed out that all other Ford sides to some extent gave up their hopes for a title chase and was waiting for the 2024 season before RFK’s success gave them a new hope. Chris Buescher’s win and Keselowski’s success made Penske’s teams work hard and eventually find the advantage they needed to win the title.  

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I would credit Ryan Blaney’s Championship success to RFK’s ability to get this forward to move. Nobody could get the Ford to run, they did, and it really woke up the other Ford teams. Instead of sitting there saying ‘We’ll we have a car we can’t compete with, we got to wait till next year, this car you can’t make it work’, well RFK did, they figured it out and it actually motivated Penske and the others to go to work.
Junior said via Dale Jr. Download.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. predicted Ryan Blaney’s 2023 title triumph

The two-time Xfinity Series champion had Ryan Blaney as his pick to win the 2023 NASCAR Cup titles before the start of the season. Despite the slump in performance of the Ford stars, Dale Jr. stuck with his pick and it was a double sweet moment when Baney won the title, as he was calling the race from the NBC race booth.

Ryan Blaney (Via IMAGO)
Ryan Blaney (Via IMAGO)

The first ten races of the season were a mix of some good and bad moments for Blaney. He scored five top-10s and four finishes outside the top-20. He was able to get the momentum on his side from race week 9 and ended his two-year-long winless streak at the Coco Cola 600. A performance slump followed the win and till the R-12 cut-off race at Talladega, the subpar run continued.

But after the Talladega win in the playoff, Blaney was on another level. He was a contender for the win in all of the following races. He won the R-8 cut-off race at Martinsville to earn Championship-4 entry and in the finale finished the race at P2 behind Ross Chastain to take home the Cup.

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