Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway went as expected, with New Zealand's Shane van Gisbergen leading 74 of the 110 laps and holding off a hard-charging Chase Briscoe for the second consecutive season to get the win in Wine Country.
While Sonoma proved that van Gisbergen is mortal on road courses, as Briscoe clearly had the better handling car in the closing laps, he still picked up his eighth road course win in 16 starts and now faces the elephant in the room with zero road courses remaining on this year's schedule.
A lot of the attention was on van Gisbergen, and rightfully so, when you consider the success he has had on those layouts. However, one driver who has quietly been flying under the radar in recent weeks is 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, who recorded his sixth consecutive top 10 finish at Sonoma in sixth.
That consistency currently has Blaney third in the standings, 104 points behind Denny Hamlin with eight races remaining in the regular season. Blaney has led a respectable 311 laps this season, but despite 190 of those coming at Bristol Motor Speedway in April and just three top five finishes to his credit, he still finds himself lurking in third with as good a chance as any to win the title.
Ryan Blaney sneaking up on championship battle
Sure, Tyler Reddick and Hamlin have a combined nine regular season wins to their credit, and Hamlin even put together a three-race winning streak before becoming the series' first points leader aside from Reddick all season at Sonoma.
That is what makes Blaney's season so impressive, especially when you consider what he has to deal with on his own team and within the Ford camp in general. For starters, his pit crew is among the worst in the Cup Series, something that was on full display during his lone win of the season at Phoenix Raceway when pit road issues forced him to drive through the field multiple times.
Even at Bristol, when he ranked second in speed and finished runner-up in one of the race's best cars, his recurring nightmare came back to bite him again when he was sent to the back twice due to his crew not getting the wheels tight.
Blaney continues to be one of the most complete drivers in the entire sport, but the constant setbacks he has had to endure must be cleaned up if he is truly going to be a legitimate title contender this season.
When you consider the lack of performance from most of the Fords, Blaney's 2026 season has been even more impressive. He is the only Team Penske driver inside the top 15 in points, with Austin Cindric (16th) and three-time champion Joey Logano (20th) struggling to even make the Chase.
In fact, RFK Racing's Chris Buescher (seventh) is the only other Ford driver inside the top 10, which further highlights Blaney's ability to consistently maximize what he can get from his No. 12 Mustang.
As impressive as all that has been, he has only led 61 laps during his current top 10 streak and has zero top five finishes in that span, so there is still some work to be done to catch up to Reddick and Hamlin, even though he leads the series with 13 top 10 finishes.
While Blaney is only 61 points clear of sixth-place Chase Elliott in the standings, and any chance he has of making up any additional ground over the next eight races is slim, he would only be 35 points behind first place when the points are reset.
With consistency being as important as it has been in a while, that is plenty close enough for someone like Blaney to interfere with the Toyota party at the top of the standings and tack on a second title by season's end. Ford is still a step behind the Toyotas and the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets, but Blaney has shown that he is more than capable of putting up a fight.
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