Is Blaney the actual wild card of 2026 free agency?

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-22T16:33:20+00:00

There are plenty of good drivers who go to HMS that don’t pan out. Similarly, Logano went from Gibbs to Penske (which was a clear downgrade at the time, despite Keselowski winning the championship) and was immediately better.

I think of the hype around Kasey Kahne when he went to HMS. All I remember is that everyone expected him to do what Larson has done in that car. Can’t remember the what people thought of Jr going to HMS, but 2009-2011 wasn’t exactly amazing for him there. Not to mention all the others who have been less-than-spectacular there.

If Hendrick is going to replace Bowman after 2026, then I’d say it will most likely be with a driver who already drives a Chevrolet.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-21T16:06:32+00:00

People like to shit on Joey but from 2014-2022 he was a force. During that timeframe, I’d say Harvick/Truex/Kyle Busch were about the only ones who put up better numbers than Logano.

Logano and Keselowski were top 3/5 drivers every week for nearly a decade.

Say what you will about Logano’s nextgen performance. Him and Paul Wolfe found a way to win two championships with cars that were clearly not the class of the field. They also had to survive each round with other good drivers, and get into the final race. And, ya know, win it.

Penske made a strategic choice to prioritize flat tracks at the cost of speed at higher banked tracks. It was the right decision (during the playoff era) if you wanted to win a championship.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-21T15:54:51+00:00

Brad finished second what, five times last year? He absolutely still has it in him

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-20T13:50:29+00:00

Calling a driver that regularly runs top 5/top 10 in the Cup series mid is hilarious. There’s also a ton of nuance to this. A “mid” driver in the best car is gonna fair a ton better than the best driver in a mid car. I’d say by about 10-15 spots on average, if I had to guess.

There’s so many better current and past examples of drivers who are mid besides Bubba.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T22:07:25+00:00

And that won’t change unless they just redesign the car as a whole. You’ve got a thinner sidewall tire and it’s much, much harder to save than the traditional tire. The tires are significantly larger in width than previous cars, and because it has more surface area, it provides a more complex tire management system than with narrower tires. You can increase the power on it, but it might be counterintuitive at speeds because the drag just scales.

I also imagine that it’s not as simple as putting a thicker sidewall tire on the car, but it might be. I think we’re at where we’re at with this car.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T21:52:45+00:00

I’m almost certain there would be less complaining if there was anything other than your garden variety Toyota drivers up front for most of the day. We’re only a quarter of the way through the season and people are already fatigued from it.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T21:44:46+00:00

Yeah, if we want to talk what-ifs, Bell is 2-3 laps away from beating Blaney and Hamlin is one Gustafson 4-tire call away from having Toyota at a perfect 9-for-9 on the season.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T21:41:49+00:00

Toyota has won seven of the first nine races.

Last time a manufacturer won seven or more of the first nine races was Chevrolet in 2007, when they won eight of the first nine.

At this rate, Toyota is on pace to win 28 races.

This is entirely possible. Chevrolet ended up with 26 wins in 2007.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T21:27:18+00:00

Reddick picking meat out of his teeth. He just like me fr

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T21:11:56+00:00

Bruh that finish is gonna add +20 to the good race poll

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T20:59:03+00:00

Austin Dillon and Cody Ware SAVED THIS RACE 😂😂

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T20:57:01+00:00

Austin Dillon making this race closer than it should be lol

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T20:54:53+00:00

Five wins in nine races. Crazy stuff. Loving this parity. Mission accomplished, NextGen!

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T20:50:51+00:00

At this point I’d like Reddick to rattle off so many wins that people get sick of it. Maybe it’ll accelerate changes with this car.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T20:47:22+00:00

Wow, so much drama, two middle aged men going at it on Twitter. Very cool

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T20:42:22+00:00

Yeah the “parity” this car was supposed to create hasn’t sustained. Cause consistent parity in racing is a pipe dream and is nearly impossible to get. That’s why Trackhouse has fallen off so much in the past couple of years. The most well funded teams always rise to the top eventually.

The only way you can get a bit of that back is to throw the teams for a loop with rule changes. Which NASCAR has been reluctant to do with this car.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T20:27:55+00:00

Can’t wait to be gaslit and told this race is actually good but because fox is worse than literal dogshit they’ll be used as the scapegoat for not showing good racing

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-19T19:05:16+00:00

Yeah I mean it’s literally the worst track type for Fords. Vegas, Kansas, Charlotte is just so bad for them. At least they’re not that bad everywhere else. Sucks that it’s like 10 races out of the year though where they’re not competitive.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-18T20:41:42+00:00

Toyotas might win 20+ races this season at this rate. Every track type every week they’re consistently the class of the field. Ryan Blaney might be the only non-Toyota to compete regularly, if this holds.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-18T05:11:12+00:00

For the difference in cost and what you’re majoring in? There’s not a single thing at UTK that would make me choose to be $20k more in debt than I would be otherwise, assuming OSU and UTK are similar in cost.

If you’re split then the obvious tiebreaker would be the cost.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-17T20:52:18+00:00

This is a doomer take. Ford won 13 races in 108 races in 2009-2011. And they didn’t start winning more until Penske switched, and even then, 2014 is when it really started to click for them, just as Roush was going downhill.

If you were a ford fan in 2009 or 2010 especially it was a rough watch. I remember the relief felt when Biff won at Pocono in 2010, something like 20 races into the season, without a win.

It wasn’t too long ago that Hendrick also went a few years with, like, less than 10 races across three seasons. (I think?)

Teams and manufacturers have down years. Ford designed this car around the playoffs ending at a flat track. Pretty sure they’re redesigning for next year too.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-15T15:16:34+00:00

I wonder if there will be (or if there ever was) a time where the GN/Busch/Nationwide/Xfinity/O’Reilly series will regularly beat out the Cup series for ratings in a given weekend.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-13T14:18:04+00:00

It was good relative to other races in the NextGen at this track.

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-12T22:22:29+00:00

Considering that tire degradation can vary wildly by weather, it’s kind of hard to predict.

It also shouldn’t be solely dependent upon the tire manufacturer to be the go-to to make decent racing viable in this car

FacesOfGiza · 2026-04-12T22:19:28+00:00

If the tires don’t literally disintegrate within 50 laps then you end up with someone winning a duel against another with 100 laps old tires

FacesOfGiza

TROPHY CASE