Imagine being Ryan Blaney, participating in one of the wildest and most unpredictable races of the year on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, when all of a sudden someone not on the Team Penske No. 12 crew comes over the radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi Uncle Ryan \u2026 win the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There was immediate laughter over the radio as the 2023 Cup Series champion figured out what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey mom, get Bodie off the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blaney also acknowledged it was \u2018awesome\u2019 and thankfully it was under one of the prolonged periods of caution so no harm nor foul.<\/p>\n
This was his four-year-old nephew, Bodie, who was at the track this weekend alongside his other nephew Louie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was funny. I was laughing,\u201d Blaney detailed during a Tuesday Ford Racing teleconference.<\/p>\n
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So what led to the moment?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were in the bus beforehand and Gianna, my wife, has a radio in the bus where she can listen,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cNeither of us knew that the button worked.\u00a0I thought it was an obsolete button to where they have that as far as they can make the button not work if you push it, but apparently it does.\u00a0The four-year-old was talking to me before the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018What\u2019s that thing with Aunt Gianna\u2019s name on it?\u2019\u00a0I was like, \u2018It\u2019s a radio to where Aunt Gianna can listen to my racing.\u2019\u00a0And he was like, \u2018Oh, like a walkie-talkie.\u2019\u00a0I was like, \u2018Yeah, kind of like a walkie-talkie,\u2019 so I guess he took that and remembered it.\u00a0He\u2019s a smart kid.\u00a0He figured it out and turned it on and pushed the button and gave me a little bit of motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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And again, the timing of it all kind of worked out too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was pretty cool,\u201d Blaney said.\u00a0\u201cIt was at a great time.\u00a0It was under caution.\u00a0There was not much going on and I got a real good kick out of it.\u00a0We all did.\u00a0All of my team got a good kick out of it, so that was funny, and I knew right away who it was.\u00a0When he called me Uncle Ryan I was like, \u2018Alright, that\u2019s either Bodie or Louie, and I figured it was Bodie, the younger one, because I talked to him about this radio, so I got a good laugh out of that.\u00a0It was a point in the race where there were a lot of cautions after cautions, so that was a nice moment of levity of just a little break.\u00a0So, yeah, it was funny.\u00a0We\u2019ve got to get that button worked on to where no one pushed it on accident, but he\u2019s a smart kid.\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t have known how to do that at four years old, but he figured it out.\u201d<\/p>\n