Ryan Blaney’s Nephew Hijacked His Team Radio To Talk To Him During This Weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Race At Bristol

The best crew chief.

The NASCAR Cup Series was on the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway this past weekend, and it was a wild one.

Tire wear was an issue all night, with drivers being forced to conserve their Goodyear tires early on when it became apparent that the tires were shredding after 20 or 30 laps. From then on, it was a game of who could protect their tires the most through all the chaos.

A caution flew with just a handful of laps to go, and when the final restart came there were only 4 laps left in the race – for a total of 2 miles around the high-banked half mile track.

Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith were in the lead, but their teams had run out of tires so the were forced to restart on tires that were 20-some laps older than the cars behind them. That allowed Christopher Bell, who restarted in the 4th position, to sneak through and take the lead, while holding off a hard-charging Brad Keselowski to score his first win at Bristol in a chaotic race.

The whole thing no doubt gave crew chiefs headaches all night, with their drivers constantly wanting new tires and trying to figure out when to come to pit road to put themselves in the best position at the end of the race.

We heard more than a few testy exchanges over the radio between drivers and crew chiefs. But none of them were as adorable as the exchange Ryan Blaney had on his team radio.

Under caution with about 185 laps to go, a young voice came over the radio to give some encouragement to the driver of the #12 car:

“Hi Uncle Ryan. Uncle Ryan, win this race.”

The voice belonged to his nephew Bodhi, the son of his sister Emma, who had apparently gotten ahold of Ryan’s wife’s radio. And Blaney got quite a chuckle out of it:

“Mom, get Bodhi off the scanner. He found Gianna’s scanner in the bus. Found out how to turn it on. Pretty smart.”

I mean, NASCAR’s always been a family sport. But when you’re having to pit every 30 laps at a track where laps only take 16 seconds, probably best to keep the airwaves clear.

Blaney looked to be in a good position to take home the victory for his nephew, winning stage one and ultimately finishing 4th in the race. It was a solid points night, one that easily helped Blaney move through to the next round of the playoffs, where he sits 5th heading into next weekend’s race at New Hampshire.

The 2023 Cup Series champion is easily one of the favorites to take home the trophy again this year, already racking up wins in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville and in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona last month.

And I’m sure he’s going to be getting plenty of encouragement from his nephew as the season winds down – even if it takes a pep talk in the middle of a race.The post Ryan Blaney’s Nephew Hijacked His Team Radio To Talk To Him During This Weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Race At Bristol first appeared on Whiskey Riff.