AVONDALE, Ariz. — On a day that Kevin Harvick toasted his team after his final Cup start and Ross Chastain smashed a watermelon after winning, Ryan Blaney ushered in a new era with his first series championship.
Five years after a NASCAR marketing campaign promoted young drivers — and irked some veteran competitors — the youngest Cup Championship 4 field assembled at Phoenix Raceway.
“I thought it was really cool that this year there were no older veterans in the final four and that really said a lot,” Chase Elliott told NBC Sports after Sunday’s race. “It seems like over the last three or four years, younger guys have been kind of creeping into that final four more and more and to see a whole class of them I thought was really cool.”
A 90-degree day at Phoenix Raceway ended in a confetti shower for Blaney, a third-generation racer. The 29-year-old finished second and beat Kyle Larson, William Byron and Christopher Bell for the championship.
Since Kyle Busch scored his second Cup title in 2019, three of the last four champions have been under the age of 30. All three of those drivers — Elliott in 2020, Larson in 2021 and Blaney this season — won the title in their first appearance in the Championship 4.
“The sport is definitely skewing younger,” said Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks after celebrating Chastain’s win. “To me that’s opportunity. To me that’s exciting.
“You look at the drivers are skewing younger because the tools that they have at 14, 15, 16 years old are really unprecedented. They’re just Cup ready. The talented ones are Cup ready at a younger age. I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.”
This comes as the sport is negotiating for a new media rights agreement that will start in 2025 and is expected to include a streaming element. The next generation of drivers — and fans — will play a key role in the sport’s growth.
“There’s a lot of youth right now,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance. “That is important for the future of the sport, not just with having them be successful on track, but building those drivers to have a brand to engage with fans to keep the sport healthy with fans in the stands.”
As popular drivers leave, it puts more focus on the next generation to excite the fanbase.
“Every win is a changing of the guard,” Brad Keselowski told NBC Sports after he congratulated Blaney and team owner Roger Penske. “In racing you get your quarterly report every week. It can go up and it can go right back down. So you’ve just got to enjoy it when you’re on top.”
Keselowski noted that the momentum of the young generation “can flip in a heartbeat.”
Even with Harvick’s retirement, those 38 and over include former champions Busch, Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr., along with Denny Hamlin. So it’s not as if the young drivers will have it easy.
But the next generation already is changing the sport. They race differently. Chastain, who is 30 years old, has always been aggressive and was the same way Sunday. Typically, those not racing for the title are deferential on the track to those racing for the crown.
Not Chastain.
He did everything he could to remain in the lead and keep Blaney behind him.
“The dude blocked three lanes in the corner of every lap,” Blaney said of his duel with Chastain in the final stage. “I don’t know how I’m racing him hard. When you look in the mirror going left, right, left, following wherever I go, I don’t understand how he thinks I’m racing him hard. He’s backing me up to (Larson). I have to go. He’s backing me up to Larson to where I’m going to be in trouble.”
Blaney grew frustrated and hit Chastain’s rear bumper during their duel.
“He blocked me on purpose 10 times,” Blaney said of Chastain. “So, yeah, I hit him on purpose. What do you expect me to do? He’s backing me up to the other championship guy, and I got to go. We were just racing hard. But do I think he was over aggressive on the blocks? Yes, very much so. Did I hit him? Yes, I did. That’s just part of it.”
Chastain concedes that Blaney might have given him a particular one-finger salute as they raced each other.
It didn’t matter.
“It’s nothing other than wanting to win and hold track position,” Chastain said of how he raced Blaney. “He could run second and win the championship. He (ran second) last year. He can do it again. He ultimately did it.”
Even Penske, known for his calm, admitted to jitters as he watched Blaney and Chastain race.
“I think the captain had to stay cool,” Penske said, noting his nickname. “He was the coolest guy on the ship. I would say I probably was cool. Inside I was turning over, counting the laps.”
The younger generation also is impacting the sport off the track. Penske’s race teams are known for their success, team executives in starched white shirts and clean-shaven men.
Blaney’s lumberjack beard goes against the Penske way, but he managed to keep it in the playoffs. As Penske left the media center Sunday night, he encouraged media members to ask Blaney about his beard.
“I think that means he wants me to shave it,” Blaney said when told of Penske’s request. “It will get shaved. Just give me a couple months.”
That’s the younger generation, doing things on their schedule and in their way.
But back in 2018 after the sport saw the retirements of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart, NASCAR looked to promote the next generation of drivers. Busch was critical of the campaign, calling it “stupid” and its emphasis on the younger drivers “bothersome.”
With Elliott and Blaney each winning a championship, the marketing campaign proved prophetic.
“It’s nice to kind of have fulfilled that,” Blaney said. “I do remember that, these guys haven’t earned this marketing stuff. It’s nice to kind of be able five years later have a couple of us that have won a championship.”
In 2020, Blaney went on the stage to congratulate his good friend Elliott. Sunday, Elliott went on stage to celebrate with Blaney.
“For him to show me all the support this week was really neat as well for me,” Blaney said. “Him kind of checking in on me, seeing how I was doing. He’s been here a couple times.
“To have him up onstage was special. I’m going to enjoy that picture of he and I with the trophy.”
Two Cup champions.
“When we were kids starting racing together, we never thought we would be here, have a championship apiece,” Blaney said of he and Elliott. “It’s really cool to share that with somebody.”
AVONDALE, ARIZONA - NOVEMBER 05: (L-R) Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford, NASCAR Cup Series driver, Chase Elliott, and Gianna Tulio celebrate Blaney winning the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship, finishing first of the Championship 4 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway on November 05, 2023 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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