Ryan Blaney channels ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage for Talladega inspiration

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) – His title hopes in danger after an early crash in the opening race of NASCAR’s third round of the playoffs, Ryan Blaney looked for some inspiration heading into a critical race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.

He found wisdom in the words of late wrestling Hall of Famer “Macho Man” Randy Savage.

“Unjustifiably in a position I’d rather not be in, but the cream will rise to the top,” Blaney said, quoting Savage about his title chances. “I don’t think there is a person before or after him that could cut promos quite like that guy. If I’m sitting at home and I’m bored – and maybe I’ve had a couple of drinks – I will go watch Randy Savage interviews just because I think it was amazing what was going through that man’s head.”

Blaney is last among the eight remaining playoff drivers and 31 points below the cut line with two races remaining to determine the championship four. Denny Hamlin via his win last week at Las Vegas is the only driver locked into the winner-take-all season finale at Phoenix.

Blaney, the 2023 Cup champion, finished last at Las Vegas to land in this position. He’s joined in the bottom four by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano – combined they have won the last three championships – as well as Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and William Byron.

Blaney and Elliott are the only two remaining playoff drivers who have won in the last nine races at Talladega. Blaney, who is trying to reach the championship four for the third consecutive season, used his 2023 victory on the Alabama track to lift him to the title.

While Blaney has three wins and six top-five finishes at Talladega, he also has failed to finish six of the 22 races he’s run there including the last two. He was in a crash in the spring and finished 37th and was 39th in last year’s playoff race.

When he crashed last week at Las Vegas, it was the eighth time in 33 races Blaney has failed to finish this season. And, if he does win the Cup title, he would have the most DNFs of any Cup champion since the format was created in 2004.

He remains optimistic, though.

“I told myself like, ‘Hey, you can be upset with the Vegas deal Sunday, but when you wake up Monday, we’re gonna be full-on looking forward and heads-up looking forward to Talladega and then what challenges come at Martinsville,'” Blaney said. “I think it gets easier as you get older and your outlook on things change and you’re just trying to look ahead a little bit more.

“I think some of it come naturally and just natural growth, but the other is just having these conversations with myself years ago of, ‘Hey, I want to kind of change this up about me,’ because early in my career I would stew on things a little bit longer. Now I try to just drop things and move on from them, so it’s a little bit of both, but I think that’s the healthiest way I’ve been able to deal with it.”

Michael McDowell continued to show his qualifying strength on superspeedways by winning the pole for Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway for Spire Motorsports.

“The pole is awesome, but more important is just knowing you have a fast car for the race,” said McDowell.

McDowell ran his qualifying run in a Chevrolet at 182.466 mph for the eighth pole of Cup Series career. He bettered playoff driver Chase Briscoe, who was second in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Kyle Busch qualified third in a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, while Ford drivers Austin Cindric of Team Penske and Ryan Preece of RFK Racing were fourth and fifth.

Christopher Bell and Blaney were the only other playoff drivers besides Briscoe to crack the top 10 at seventh and eighth.

Over half of the playoff drivers qualified outside the top 10: Byron was 13th, Logano 16th and Hamlin 17th. Kyle Larson was 119th and Elliott 23rd.

NASCAR has warned that it will be monitoring teams for potential cases of race manipulation, and Talladega is ripe for those situations because Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota drivers all tend to work together to manage the draft.

But Cindric raised another point in that all eight playoff drivers have teammates who are not racing for the title but could be in position to offer an assist.

Hamlin is already in, but his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Briscoe and Bell are not while Ty Gibbs is not eligible. None of the three Hendrick Motorsports cars have clinched, but Alex Bowman has already been eliminated. And at Penske, Blaney and Logano are trying to advance and Cindric, winner of the spring race at Talladega, was eliminated in the second round.

“I have to be an asset to those guys throughout the course of the next two weeks,” Cindric said. “I think the interesting thing when you look at the field and the playoff grid is that there are two cars from two teams which are both sitting below the cut line. So there’s a wingman for each of those, like (Bowman) is in the same position as me, (Gibbs) as well and Hamlin is able to do the same thing for his teammates if he chooses to.

“Once you go down the list it’s pretty even as far as the opportunity to help your company if the opportunity presents itself. This is the type of racetrack where that would happen more than anywhere else.”

Byron had one of the best cars at Las Vegas until he crashed out by slamming into the back of Ty Dillon at full speed. Byron had no idea that Dillon was trying to get to pit road.

The fallout put Byron out of the race, below the elimination cut line, and cost Dillon’s spotter his job.

Joe White said he was fired by Kaulig Racing for the poor communication on the spotter stand.

“Got to Talladega, parked the bus, got fired,” White posted on social media. “In an uber to the airport to go home for the weekend. Also to be clear, it was already determined that I would not be spotting for Ty next year, but that I would still be with Kaulig in some fashion. But not now.”

Dillon and Byron are in disagreement if Dillon’s intent to pit was ever relayed to Byron’s No. 24 team, and White’s account doesn’t exactly add clarity.

“Here is the story of what happened last Sunday. I did in fact go down and tell the spotter of the 24 that we were pitting, and he misinterpreted the information. That’s what happened,” White wrote.

Blaney at plus-1000 is the betting favorite. … Talladega has hosted a playoff race in all 22 years of the format but this is the first season it is in the third round. … Each of the last 10 Talladega races has been won by a different driver – the longest streak of races at Talladega without a repeat winner. … The driver who led the most laps failed to win each of the last 10 Talladega races, while the eventual winner led 19 laps or less in each of the last nine Talladega races. … If there is a repeat winner or win by a non-playoff driver both Larson and Bell could clinch berths in the championship finale with help from other drivers.