NASCAR mailbag: Where does Ryan Blaney rank among young drivers?

Each week SB Nation’s NASCAR reporter Jordan Bianchi answers your questions about the latest news and happenings within the sport. If you have a question, email jordanmbianchi@gmail.com.

I see all the attention Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott get, but I’m starting to believe Ryan Blaney deserves the same. Am I wrong? And why is this? You would think the driver for one of NASCAR’s oldest teams would get a lot more praise than he’s getting.

--Chris

You’re absolutely not wrong in thinking Blaney is one of NASCAR’s rising stars and someone who is going to have a long and successful career. The talent is evident. And as demonstrated Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, he’s on the cusp of winning and it’s only a matter of when, not if, that first victory will occur.

Your point on Larson and Elliott getting more attention than Blaney is also valid, though there is sound reasoning why. Larson is considered a once-in-a-generation talent in the mold of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, while Elliott is the son of a popular NASCAR Hall of Famer and the handpicked successor to drive Gordon’s No. 24 car. Those kinds of accolades are naturally going to garner some headlines.

Most importantly, Larson and Elliott have both backed up the accompanying hype with substantial results. Larson this season has a win, four seconds, and currently leads the Monster Energy Cup Series standings. Elliott is coming off a stellar freshman season -- he beat Blaney for Rookie of the Year honors -- and has an Xfinity Series championship (2014) on his résumé.

All this, however, doesn’t mean Blaney is being overlooked. He’s not. Dale Earnhardt Jr. routinely touts the 23-year-old in interviews when asked about NASCAR’s future. Blaney’s talent is such that, Ford, Team Penske, and Wood Brothers Racing came together to ensure he moved into a fulltime Cup ride. And ultimately, the admiration will come if Blaney continues driving like he did on Sunday, when he dominated two-thirds of the race and would’ve won with a little bit more experience and patience.

How is it Joe Gibbs Racing is struggling and Furniture Row Racing isn’t? If the two teams are essentially one super team and Furniture Row gets its cars and stuff from Gibbs, then shouldn’t Furniture Row also be struggling?

--Joe

Considering how closely linked Toyota’s flagship teams are, it stands to reason the performance of each would be equivalent -- or at least within the same realm. But similar to when Stewart-Haas Racing had a technical alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, results between the organizations can and often do vary.

Case in point: When Hendrick experienced a rare downturn last summer, SHR largely continued unaffected. Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart each went to victory lane once, with Kevin Harvick having only two finishes outside the top 10 from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

That discrepancy occurs even though one team relies on another for cars, parts and pieces, etc. That’s because the affiliate team is not only getting high-quality equipment, but then letting its own crew chiefs, engineers, and mechanics get ahold of it and make improvements as they see fit. It’s one of the reasons why Jimmie Johnson wasn’t heartbroken to see SHR switch manufacturers over the offseason, and why some Hendrick personnel believe they’ll be better off without having to disclose their secrets to a rival.

The relationship between JGR and FRR is less prickly than the Hendrick-SHR collaboration ended up, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see JGR begin to lean more on FRR and adapt some of what Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Cole Pearn are doing to aid in snapping its early season funk.

It’s obvious FRR hasn’t been slowed by the transition to the new redesigned Camry, nor the addition of a second team for rookie Erik Jones. Truex has a win this season and leads the series in stage wins, while Jones has shown promise and actually ranks higher in points than JGR’s Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, and Daniel Suarez.

How big of a deal is it that Dale Jr. finally got a top-10 finish?

--Ryan

Although it won’t define Earnhardt’s year by any means, it still carries significance. No driver wants to go seven races into a season without a top-10 -- especially a driver expected to qualify for the playoffs and holding championship aspirations.

Like Johnson, Earnhardt had run better than his results indicated prior to Texas. But if he cannot win during the regular season, Earnhardt may need every point to earn a playoff berth. And it’s conceivable the potential strong finishes that didn’t materialize in the Daytona 500 (accident), at Atlanta (tire issues), and at Martinsville (accident) may place the No. 88 team in scramble mode as the regular season winds down.

Going beyond just wins and losses, Earnhardt needed a good result on Sunday when you take into account the events of last year. In 2016, a concussion ended his season at the halfway point and raised the possibility that NASCAR’s most popular driver almost needed to retire prematurely. Fairly or unfairly, the longer Earnhardt would’ve gone into 2017 without a top-10, the more speculation would’ve increased about his health and whether he should’ve returned at all.

What Texas showed was that if Earnhardt has a good car underneath him he’s more than capable of getting the job done. Now it’s up to Hendrick and crew chief Greg Ives to make that happen on a consistent basis.