"Rotate that race too”: Ryan Blaney hopes NASCAR gives Championship race the new Clash treatment

Ryan Blaney has praised the NASCAR Clash race at Bowman Gray Stadium. The Team Penske star also hopes that, just like the Clash, the championship race is also rotated across different venues.

NASCAR announced on Wednesday (July 9) that the Cook Out Clash will be returning to the Bowman Gray Stadium in 2026. The 2025 edition marked the Clash's debut at Bowman Gray, with The Coliseum hosting the event in 2024.

Chase Elliott finished ahead of Blaney to win the 2025 Cook Out Clash, and the latter has now shared his thoughts on the event's return to Bowman Gray next year.

Ryan Blaney spoke about the success of this year's race and raised the possibility of it being an inspiration for the championship race with more rotations. He said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:

"I thought it was a huge success earlier this year. I loved running around that place. I think everybody really enjoyed it. I think it put on a really good show, honestly. Like, there was a lot of passing, there was a lot of tire fall-off. So I think it was good they finally got that out there and I see everybody excited about it, as they should be."

"That's great news. I love keeping it there at Bowman Gray, at least for two, three years, right? I mean, you can, that's another one. We talk about rotating the championship weekend or whatever. You can rotate that race too and they've done that. So I'm happy it got a second date."

Blaney, meanwhile, remains a significant presence in the Cup Series. The Team Penske driver won the Cup Series title in 2023 and finished runner-up to teammate Joey Logano last year. He is all set to be in the hunt again this year as he has already qualified for the playoffs, with the series moving into the final stretch of the season.

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Ryan Blaney believes “NASCAR is currently crushing it” with viewership numbers

Ryan Blaney publicly defended NASCAR’s television ratings after criticism from journalist Jeff Gluck, who described the 1.6 million viewers for the Quaker State 400 at Atlanta as underwhelming.

Blaney responded on X, emphasizing that NASCAR’s audience for the race was about 500,000 higher than Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix, which drew 1.1 million viewers in the U.S. on the same weekend. He argued that the narrative around NASCAR’s viewership should be positive, stating:

"So, we got 500k more folks tuned in. Why do people make it out to be a bad thing? We crush the parade every week, so why do we get down in the dumps by this? Nascar is currently crushing it."

Ryan Blaney and NASCAR will return to Cup Series action this weekend with the Toyota Save Mart 350 scheduled for July 13 at 3:30 pm ET. The Sonoma Raceway in California will play host to the race weekend.