After the eventful finish of the Brickyard 400, won by Kyle Larson, former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace launched an online poll. In this poll, Wallace asked a two-choice question for fans to vote for. The question was who is NASCAR’s golden boy between Kyle Larson and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott.
This was the result of Ryan Blaney’s angry outburst over the radio in the heat of the moment when Larson was in the best position to win after Brad Keselowski dove into the pits for fuel: “There’s no way they’d put that on the green.” That’s ridiculous. They just gave it to him (Kyle Larson). Damn, I’m on top. You can’t win from on top. They gave it to the damn golden boy. “Fuck you,” Blaney said on the radio.
After the race in which Kyle Larson won his fourth victory of the season, Kenny Wallace opened the online voting, and after thousands of votes, he was crowned the winner. Kyle Larson was chosen by fans as NASCAR’s Golden Boy with 53% of the vote to Chase Elliott’s 47%. “After 7,000 votes, you said @chaseelliott and @KyleLarsonRacin are tied for the Golden Boy award . But Kyle just edged out Chase by a small margin. Still pretty close ,” Wallace wrote on his X-Handle.
Hendrick Motorsports’ winningest driver this season also had some of his own quotes in the Golden Boy tag. Larson hilariously responded to a post about Blaney’s radio message in which the Penske driver called him a “fucking Golden Boy.”
“Thank you @NASCAR,” Larson wrote.
Ryan Blaney doesn’t mean to get personal with his radio outbursts
Following Ryan Blaney’s rant earlier this season, Denny Hamlin spoke on Darlington Radio about Blaney’s contradictory personality. “I’ve never seen someone so calm in person and so wild on the radio. Never. That epitomizes what it means to put on a helmet and have your circulation cut off,” Hamlin said.
But Blaney was adamant that for him, venting on the radio is just a “release valve.” “I try not to hold grudges. For me, it’s like letting it out so it’s over within 10 seconds and I can move on and focus instead of dwelling on this thing that’s bothering me,” Blaney said.
The Team Penske driver said he wished it hadn’t happened but that it’s just part of his personality. Blaney said it all comes from feeling the need to release his emotions and reset himself and move forward. He maintained that such outbursts are never a hindrance because everyone is enjoying it and not holding on to such frustrations.
