Yesterday, Ryan Blaney capped off a great year by winning his first ever NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway. It was an impressive run, as he edged out the likes of Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Christopher Bell.
Of course, many probably didn’t predict Blaney to be the top guy of 2023, and as it turns out, Kyle Petty was one of those people. In fact, earlier this year, Petty called Blaney the modern day Kasey Kahne of racing, whose best Cup Series finish was 4th place.
Petty, a former driver, current NASCAR commentator and son of the legendary Richard Petty, had some pretty harsh comments for the 29-year-old driver while on the NASCAR on NBC podcast back in March:
“I look at the Fords, and I look at Penske, and I look at Joey and Ryan Blaney. For me — I’m going, to be honest, man — Ryan Blaney is the new Kasey Kahne. Potential unfulfilled.
Everybody wants to talk about what he can do, but he never does anything for whatever reason. For whatever reason, he just never gets past that hump.”
Now, I’m not sure if Blaney saw these comments, but I imagine he did, and I can’t help but feel like this Michael Jordan meme is appropriate:
Of course, the majority of professional athletes try to stay away from the noise on social media and focus on their craft, but a little extra bulletin board material never hurt anybody, right? Whether Blaney remembers the comment or not, NASCAR fans sure did.
They were quick to remind Petty of his comments on X:
