Kevin Harvick pulls curtain back on Ryan Blaney, explains why he rarely does win burnouts

Kevin Harvick would love to see Ryan Blaney celebrate more after winning a NASCAR Cup Series race. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick talked about why Blaney rarely does any burnouts after a victory.

“I think a Ryan Blaney that’s just letting loose, I think the fans will just love,” Harvick said. “I think some of that is just that he’s trying to be respectful to Dale Inman and Roger Penske. Ryan Blaney is a fun guy. He has a very fun side to him and has a great personality. I think if he just let it rip, the fans would just really gravitate and embrace him.

“Not that they haven’t, but he’s a champ, he’s got that personality and swagger to go along with it. Just let it rip, Blaney. I would say the burnout was weak, but the fact that he did one, we broke the ice. I’m not going to grade it because it would be low, but I think the next burnout that he does, I think he’s just going to burn it to the ground.”

Before Harvick shared his thoughts on Blaney’s burnout, co-host Mamba Smith revealed that Blaney has only done two burnouts in his career with the first being last year when he won the Cup Series championship and the last being on Sunday when he won at Iowa Speedway. Smith said that Blaney doesn’t do burnouts because Inman told him to respect the car that got you the win.

Ryan Blaney is no longer in the playoff bubble

Sunday’s win was needed for Blaney as it was the first victory of the year. During his post-race press conference, Blaney talked about paying more attention to the playoff bubble since he was there with multiple drivers who have yet to win a race.

“I don’t look at it every day,” Blaney said. “I look at it Sunday night when it comes out, when y’all put it out. Okay, there it is. I don’t really pay attention to it the rest of the week. But it was concerning when we had that stretch of bad races, Darlington, wrecking early at Charlotte, not finishing well at Gateway. I was like, Man, we’re getting a little close to the cut line.

“We had a good day at Sonoma, kind of buffed it. Tonight we had a really solid night. I did look at it a second. Got to be like we didn’t have a lot of wiggle room left.”