“I couldn’t be more proud of this man…I went through every emotion that day!” Gianna Tulio wrote these words in an Instagram post shortly after her husband won the 2023 Talladega playoff race. They show how passionately she feels for Ryan Blaney’s NASCAR victories. Hence, when Blaney won his first race for the 2025 season, he was overjoyed not only for himself but also for his wife.

Ryan Blaney and Gianna Tulio got married in December 2024, in a winter affair in Colorado. Keeping pace with the grandeur of the wedding, Blaney also fetched a grand redemption victory at Nashville Superspeedway. So, how could he miss out on his beloved on this special occasion?

Ryan Blaney made up for past failures

The Team Penske driver had a turbulent season until Sunday. Across 13 Cup Series races, Ryan Blaney encountered 5 DNFs, which made his 2024 win in Martinsville seem like a distant dream. However, the Cracker Barrel 400 race unexpectedly turned things around. The No. 12 Ford was undoubtedly the fastest car in the field – Blaney set a lap of 30.30 seconds against then race leader Chase Briscoe’s 30.60 seconds. Then he moved into 7th when Denny Hamlin won the first stage. By the second stage, Blaney was leading – he led for 139 of 300 laps. For the last 32 laps, Carson Hocevar was on his rear bumper, but could never catch up.

That is how Ryan Blaney punched his ticket to the 2025 Cup Series playoffs. This victory promptly reminded him of his wife, and the cameras showed an anxious Blaney sitting down and dialing up his beloved. During the post-race Amazon Prime broadcast, Blaney talked about his pending phone call to Gianna Tulio: “She’s not here, but she always tells me, ‘If you win, you gotta FaceTime me.’ I about owe her for five, that’s ’cause I forget. I don’t bring my phone with me, so I had to borrow my PR guy’s. Yeah, so I’m happy I remembered that. She was sitting at home, she was excited. I wish she could be here, obviously. I wanted to share a few together. But I’m excited to get back on this year, whatever I came to do tonight.”

Ryan Blaney has collected 7 top tens and 6 top fives this year. However, the huge number of DNFs still stood as a stain. Overcoming that felt extra special, as Blaney said: “It’s been pretty rocky this year — had a lot of misfortune and down times with crappy things happening to us. It’s like, ‘What do we have to do finish these races or close one out and have things go our way. I don’t want to say this was relief, but finally nothing crazy happened and we were able to run our own race, bring the speed and do our job very, very well.” It’s great to see luck finally on his side.

The #12 Team Penske driver was very close to victory at the 2025 Wurth 400 at the Texas Speedway this season. With three laps to go, Michael McDowell’s No. 71 crashed into the outer wall. Caution came out, and the race ran into overtime. Ryan Blaney, who maintained the third position for a very long time in the race, had the chance to finish 2nd. He was in the battle for the lead, head-to-head with Joey Logano in the two-way. But, while he maintained a close second for a majority of the first lap, he lost it to a charging Ross Chastain and finished third. However, this race was one of his best performances of the season. Blaney started at P24 and climbed to a near-second-place finish. And now, things have changed.

Well, Ryan Blaney made it well worth it for Gianna Tulio. Last year as well, a race victory marked a significant family milestone.

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Collecting a hometown prize

Ryan Blaney vividly remembers his family reunions during his childhood. They featured long car rides during offseason holidays to Iowa, where his grandparents lived and his mother, Lisa, grew up. Those memories visited him during the 2024 Iowa Corn 350 race. Blaney led 201 of the 350 laps and officially solidified his spot in the Cup Series Playoffs. He held the lead over eventual runner-up William Byron. His crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, offered his late-race assurance that his fuel level was more than adequate. What made this win more thrilling was that Blaney’s whole family witnessed it. They were all wearing matching gray shirts reading “Ryan Blaney Iowa Crew.” On Victory Lane, his father, Dave Blaney, embraced him.

That moment marked a significant confluence of Ryan Blaney’s family and his career. He said about the emotional moment, that marked his third NASCAR national victory in Iowa: “Home track. I got to. Means a lot. I mean, it’s cool to win in Truck here, Xfinity, now Cup. Gosh, I’m worn out. Driving hard. I figured I deserved a burnout.” Blaney was ecstatic to see his family cheering for him as well: “Move to different states, you don’t go to family events like you did as a kid every year. Nice to see them come together, and we could celebrate something.”

Clearly, involving his family in his career milestones is something paramount for Ryan Blaney. We are looking forward to more such family reunions in the 2025 Cup Series season.