When Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain squared off on track in the 2023 season finale, not many people expected it to lead to a full-blown rivalry. Yet that is where we seem to be headed. Lap after lap, the driver of the #12 tried to go around the #1, which did not give it an inch, frustrating the Team Penske star. In Las Vegas on Sunday, the roles were reversed and there was a brand new spark to the Blaney-Chastain story.

The defending Cup Series champion finished the race in P3, which was impressive considering he started the race in P15. Chastain finished just one place behind in P4 but he did whatever he could to get past the #12 and finish in the top 3. After the race, the Trackhouse Racing star took a sly dig at the champ and his defensive maneuvers that were similar to what Chastain did in Phoenix.

Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain trade barbs during and after Vegas race

There were tensions before the two, even before the race had come to an end. Ryan Blaney is known for losing his temper in the car and fans got to witness that side of him once again. This time, his ire was aimed at the driver of the #1 car. “Tell that dumbf*ck to be smart. What a d*ck,” he said of Chastain after a nervy incident off of turn 4.

Ross Chastain might have gotten wind of what the Team Penske star said about him and took a veiled dig at him in a post-race media interaction. He initially spoke about his battle for the lead with Kyle Larson before swiftly shifting attention to a man who is becoming his on-track rival. Ryan Blaney was not too far behind either as he reacted to that comment with a Star Wars GIF.

“Our balance was gonna play into putting 2 tires on and it did and the #5 and I, a few side drafts…knew that we couldn’t get to the lead, we had to then play defense and we…I really just ran as fast as I could there at the end. It was pretty cool to see Blaney blocking me, pretty cool to see his evolution with the air blocking. Proud of him,” Chastain said.

Things are quite volatile between the pair at the moment and next week, the Cup race will be at the place where it all started, Phoenix. For Blaney, however, focusing on rivalries is the last thing he needs as he has yet to find victory lane so far this year and acknowledged that the Fords were not on par with the Chevys and Toyotas.

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Ryan Blaney started the race in P15 and had to fight hard to reach the top 3. He squared off against several drivers and seemed to be in a good place to challenge for the lead, with a lot of laps to go. However, the #12 Ford Dark Horse Mustang could not close the gap to the Chevy of Kyle Larson and the Toyota of Tyler Reddick, who were the only ones fighting for the lead in the final few laps of the event.

“Thought we got better all day, which is good. Obviously, I wish we had more but we got better all day, like from where we started, we qualified. I thought we ended kind of our best probably so we were able to get in front of the #19 and the #11 who was pretty good, the #54. Didn’t have anything for the #5 or #45 all day but proud of the effort. Hopefully, it’s a good learning experience going forward,” he said. “Chevys are still fast, Toyotas are still fast and Ford, we had a good showing today but we still have a little bit of work to do,” he further added.

It’ll be interesting to see how the reigning Cup Series champion performs next week at Phoenix, a track where he reached the top of the mountain in 2023. Hopefully, fans will get to see a moment of Ryan Blaney’s brilliance and he will be able to book his place in the round of 16 early on.

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