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via Imago

via Imago

Maybe it’s time for someone else to overthrow Front Row Motorsports icon Michael McDowell from the throne of NASCAR’s biggest underdog. It might elate Roger Penske, as that someone is none other than his only playoff hope, Ryan Blaney. The 29-year-old Hartford native has been anything but consistent this season.

That was evident from the way he cleared Stewart-Haas Racing‘s star driver Kevin Harvick by a narrow margin of 0.012 seconds and won at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend. Despite putting on a remarkable show, Steve Letarte does not look too happy with the number 12 Ford team, and, in a roundabout way, he catalyzed Ryan Blaney to beat the RFK Racing superstar at Charlotte ROVAL.

Steve Letarte disregarded Roger Penske’s biggest asset, Ryan Blaney

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Since the ushering of the next-gen cars into the arena of NASCAR, all cars are almost identical in terms of components and statistics. As much as that is true, it is safe to say that a team is nothing without its cars, and hence, they strive each day behind the garage to improve their cars by tweaking the components within permissible limits.

It wouldn’t be wrong to position stock cars next to Lamborghinis in terms of price. Each team owner invests money worth a fortune in each of his cars. However, Letarte defenestrated Roger Penske’s cars right away. In a recent episode of the Dirty Mo Dough podcast, the HMS legend put Brad Keselowski‘s car ahead of the one that Ryan Blaney drives.

The crew chief for the 4-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Jeff Gordon, pulled no punches while trolling Ryan Blaney’s car. He exclaimed, “I don’t know how to say this nicely… Buescher’s riding a horse and Blaney’s riding a donkey. Those Penske cars; they are awful. How can we say this nicely? They are awful.”

“He (Ryan Blaney) won Talladega, yes. How about this; go to your group tool and put Buescher in with the three Penske cars. And I bet Buescher outruns the three Penske cars in 80% of the races,” he added. But the NBC commentator did not leave things at that. Steve Letarte anticipated that Ryan Blaney would watch the podcast and pull his socks up to prove him wrong and defeat Chris Buescher. Letarte joked, “Now that Blaney hears that, he’ll beat Buescher and text us and say take that you no good son of a gun!”

Watch this story: Blaney Triumphs Over Harvick in Thrilling YellaWood 500

Steve Letarte is perhaps not wrong about his views on the Team Penske cars. Let’s wind the clock back to 2017, when Brad Keselowski drove the number-two Ford for Roger Penske, to see how exactly that is true.

The owner of RFK Racing once expressed his disgust at his boss’s car

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Merely 89 laps into the 274-lap event of the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, the then-Team Penske driver crashed hard into the outside safety wall. Right around turn 3, Keselowski’s car got loose but rebounded from the situation. Struggling for a while with his ride, Brad Keselowski got really close to Clint Bowyer’s #14 car, which was in a bad aero position. Brad pressed the brakes as hard as he could, but in a low-air situation, he could only do what he did.

During a post-race interview, Keselowski vented his disappointment and said, “I’m frustrated with the sport that we can’t design a better car that you can race without having to do everything on the restart.”

Tracks have been experimenting a lot to improve the racing on them. On that note, Kentucky Raceway has been using a machine known as the ‘tire dragon’ to provide a better grip to the tires on the single-groove racetrack. However, Brad Keselowski felt like the cars needed to be fixed, not the circuits. He said, “[Kentucky] made a good effort but there is a limitation with how the car is. It needs a lot more help than the tires. It’s just a poorly designed race car and it makes racing on tracks like this very difficult to put on the show we want to put on for the fans”.

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One would wonder, despite both being Ford performance teams, why there are such disparities between the cars of RFK Racing and those of Team Penske. What do you think?

Read more: Ryan Blaney Under Eagle-Eyed Fans Scrutiny as Unlikely Altercation Comes to Light