Ryan Blaney Surprisingly Admits to Conversations With Chase Elliott About Staging a Fight After a Race
Ryan Blaney ended his 59-race winless streak on Monday in the Coca-Cola 600. His win was a popular one as the Team Penske driver is a fan favorite and liked by his fellow competitors in the garage.
This week, the 29-year-old made an appearance on the Dale Jr. Download, where he talked about a variety of topics, including winning the crown jewel race and what it’s like having his sister dating William Byron. It was during that personal discussion that the driver went into unexpected territory and surprisingly revealed how he and his friend Chase Elliott have actually discussed plans to stage a fight after a race.
Ryan Blaney discusses sister and her relationship with William Byron
Each week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is good at asking probing questions of his guests about life on and off the racetrack. This week it was Ryan Blaney’s turn. And in typical Junior fashion, the podcast host ventured into an area with the Team Penske pilot that was both personal and race-related, asking about Blaney’s sister Erin and her boyfriend William Byron.
“I know he’s a great dude, right,” Earnhardt said. “And you too, I would assume y’all probably are pretty comfortable hanging out with each other because you’re both similar in personality.”
“Yeah, no William’s great,” Blaney said. “It’s been fun to get to know him, you know, from a very personal level now, especially him being at a bunch of the family functions and all that stuff. He’s a great kid. I mean, he’s an awesome guy and I really enjoy being around them.
“And then racing him you know, it’s one of those things, it’s like racing one of our good buddies, right? You race hard but you know, you have respect for each other, too. But yeah, he’s been cool to get to know.”
Talks about his girlfriend competing in the Better-Half Dash
Later in the podcast, Blaney talked about his girlfriend, Gianna Tulio, and how she’s become much more interested in racing. The driver said he’s been training her lately because she will be participating in the upcoming Better-Half Dash, where the wives and significant others of NASCAR drivers compete in a go-kart race, with the winner’s purse going to the charity of their choice.
“Her and my younger sister Erin is doing it, too, so I think they’re gonna be neck and neck for like, P17, P18,” he said. “We’ll see.”
“Is it going to get competitive between you and Byron?” Earnhardt asked.
“I don’t think so,” the driver replied.
“In the pits,” the Hall of Famer suggested.
“Yeah, in the pits we’ll be rubbing elbows and fighting after the race if they wreck each other,” Blaney joked. “We should stage one. We should stage a fight. That’d be cool.”
“You should do that and punk the girls,” Junior suggested.
“Yeah, punk the girls,” Blaney said with a laugh. “Alright, wait to release this episode. Cut this part out.”
Blaney talks about staging fight with Chase Elliott
Blaney suggesting that he and Byron should stage a fight seemingly came out of left field, but then his immediate remarks that followed revealed that he’s given this concept thought before with his good friend and the sport’s most popular driver, Chase Elliott.
“Chase and I, funny we’ve been talking about staging fights,” Blaney admitted. “Chase and I have been talking about staging one for years.”
“A very public fight?” Earnhardt asked.
“Like, kind of rub each other a little bit on the racetrack, like at the end of the race. Get out and just go to town on each other,” Blaney said. “Could you imagine the headlines? That would be so cool.”
While Blaney’s win on Monday was a popular one with the fans, he was realistic with Earnhardt about what would happen if that staged fight ever became a reality.
“I would get destroyed by all the Elliott fans,” he said.
Yes, he would.
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