Team Penske's Ryan Blaney finished Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in fourth place, while Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson finished in 12th.
Based on that alone, you never would have guessed that it was Larson who needlessly got into the back of Blaney and spun around the No. 12 Ford with a completely ill-advised pass attempt into turn three of the four-turn, 1.25-mile (2.012-kilometer) Madison, Illinois oval, a move which was literally never going to work.
Here's a look at the incident.
Larson makes contact with Blaney in the middle of the corner! 😱 pic.twitter.com/b2XsQpMC8Z
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 7, 2025
Ryan Blaney reaction says it all
Blaney was obviously upset after it happened, and he is not one to hold back, though give him and the No. 12 team credit for battling back to finish fourth after getting the short end of the stick, especially since it allowed him to finish eight spots ahead of the guy who caused the wreck and got off scot-free.
"I just wanted to know what I did to deserve it," Blaney said after the race. "He just said he made a mistake. That's fine. Make mistakes. But like at the end of the day, I still got turned. Came from all the way up the bottom of the racetrack, hit me in he left rear. I know he most likely didn't mean to do it, but it happened anyway.
"That's one I've got to remember. I was happy we bounced back, not to get turned around, did a good job of coming out where we need to be. Having a good enough car to get back to fourth. Proud of the effort."
Larson is one of those drivers who has a history of these kinds of incidents, but nobody in the media is allowed to criticize him for whatever reason. Maybe it's because they think he would beat Max Verstappen (at something); who knows.
But we all saw what happened, and while he isn't necessarily going around wrecking people every week, it continues a disturbing trend of mind-boggling errors since his ill-fated Memorial Day Double attempt.
Ironically, Sunday's race was arguably his best performance since that forgettable Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 attempt, because he actually led 52 laps. He had led just 36 laps in the 14 races that had been contested following the Coca-Cola 600, which is far from what we've come to expect from the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet.
While Blaney might remember it, he's probably better served not dwelling on it, because given Larson's recent performance, and even a downturn in performance from Hendrick Motorsports in general, Blaney is the one with more to lose at this point.
Blaney won the 2023 championship and nearly won it back-to-back last year, only to be beaten by teammate Joey Logano in the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway. Team Penske are three-for-three in the Next Gen era, all at Phoenix, and they know how to show up with speed when it counts.
Additionally, Blaney overcame seven regular season DNFs to finish second in points, and he's led 301 laps since the Coca-Cola 600, including laps in six of the seven most recent races. The rally to P4 on Sunday is just further evidence that he's heating up at the right time.
As far as Larson goes, for a driver whose fanbase swears he's not only the greatest NASCAR driver of all-time but the greatest driver in the world, the fact that he continues to make these mistakes is inevitably going to catch up to him one way or another.
"I just told him I messed up," Larson said. "I wasn't meaning obviously to go in there and hit him. The lap before I had got in there and got inside of him, slid up, got to his door, got him tight, got to where I could race him down the frontstretch."
It's great he can own it, but it changes nothing. He's not the one who got turned around for no reason, and anybody can sit back and say "I made a mistake" when there are no consequences. Again, not the first time.
"I was just trying to do that again. I was a little further back into three than I was the lap before. Just misjudged the point of where I wasn't going to get next to him and tuck in. I just clipped him. ... Yeah, all on me. But wasn't intentional at all. I hope he understands that. Obviously I hurt his day where he could have gained more points.”
Blaney's rally to P4 shows he knows how to focus on what actually matters. But if he finds himself in position where he can get back at Larson without compromising his own race and/or season, don't put it past him to make clear that he does indeed "remember" this one.