With the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs beginning at Darlington Raceway, Steve Letarte has highlighted important Ryan Blaney playoff concerns for the upcoming postseason. Letarte, closely analyzing the regular season, expressed hesitation over Blaney’s ability to overcome setbacks in a high-stakes playoff environment.
Blaney, having captured two race wins during the regular schedule, including a strong finish at Daytona in the final event, enters the playoffs with statistical momentum. However, Letarte’s focus remains squarely on Blaney’s record of seven DNFs in just 26 races, which he emphasized as a key vulnerability.
“Seven DNFs this year. Seven! We’ve only run 26 races!”
—Steve Letarte, NASCAR Analyst
Letarte elaborated on his skepticism, referencing incidents and setbacks that have repeatedly affected Team Penske’s playoff hopeful.
“Man, they’ve had some stuff happen to them.”
—Steve Letarte, NASCAR Analyst
Blaney Faces High Risk in Playoff Format
Despite these setbacks, Blaney ended the regular season second in points and, after the playoff reset, enters Darlington fourth in the standings. Letarte explained his primary concern rests with the playoff system’s format: only three races per round leave little room for error, and even one DNF can be devastating for a driver on the cutline.
Blaney begins the postseason 20 points above the elimination threshold, yet Letarte underscored that a single issue at Darlington could quickly erase that cushion, potentially dropping Blaney below the cut heading to Gateway and Bristol.
“When the sample size is 26 weeks, he ended up second. Scored second most points of anybody. But in a sample size of three, it’s hard to recover from a DNF, whether it’s your doing or somebody else’s. This format rewards winning and excellence.”
—Steve Letarte, NASCAR Analyst
Co-host Alex Weaver reinforced the fragile nature of the playoff rounds:
“You cannot have a DNF week, especially in this opening round. Like, if you make a poor mistake, especially early in a race, yikes, good luck.”
—Alex Weaver, NASCAR Host
Analysts Debate Whether Blaney Can Overcome His DNF Record
Russell Wenrich of Racing Insights presented a different perspective, suggesting that Blaney retains the capability to recover from setbacks due to his inherent speed and resilience.
“But he’s one of those that has the firepower to come back and win, too. Like he was leading and ran out of gas at Gateway with like three (laps) to go last year. Like, he’s great at Bristol.”
—Russell Wenrich, Racing Insights
As the playoffs begin at Darlington Raceway, all eyes will be on Blaney to see if he can translate his regular season strength into postseason consistency, or if recurring issues will threaten his title aspirations. The debate around Ryan Blaney playoff concerns persists, highlighting the tension between speed, reliability, and the unforgiving structure of NASCAR’s postseason format.
