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Chase Elliott Was Mistaken for Another NASCAR Star by a Stranger on a Night Out, but He Decided to Just Roll With It

Published 05/18/2023, 6:44 AM EDT

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Who doesn’t love to meet their favorite stars in real life and be bewildered by their aura? Such star-struck moments are to be remembered forever. However, things can turn sideways real quick if someone mistakes a celebrity for another. If someone looks upon the internet, they will surely stumble upon instances where Ed Sheeran has been confused with Rupert Grint or Matt Damon has been confused with Leonardo DiCaprio. The list is endless. However, it’s not just the people from Hollywood who often go through this, the drivers in NASCAR have faced the same discourse.

And Ryan Blaney is someone who would surely nod his head in agreement with this statement, with a hilarious anecdote of his own.

Ryan Blaney reveals how he played along with the mistaken identity

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It’s not new that NASCAR drivers also hold a celebrity position. They have their fair share of fans who constantly update themselves with news of their favorite drivers. But if most NASCAR fans are asked who is the most famous driver on the grid, they would say Chase Elliott under a single breath. Well, he is NASCAR’s most popular driver for a reason.

And more often than not, other drivers on the grid are confused with the HMS driver. Even Ryan Blaney faced this, where he came across such an incident that he revealed in an interview with the Athletic.

The Team Penske driver was asked in his 12 questions interview, “This next one is a wild-card question. I went back to the 2015 version of our 12 Questions and I’d asked you who you get mistaken for most often. At the time, you said it was Trevor Bayne. What would your answer be now?”

USA Today via Reuters

The No.12 Ford driver replied, “I think (Bayne) was my answer then because I just started driving the 21 car and he was that guy for a while. So in the firesuit at the track, people mistook me for him.”

He also humorously added, “But now I get Chase (Elliott) a lot. I get (Corey) LaJoie every now and then.”

To which the interviewer added, “So people are like, “Hey, Corey!”

The Team Penske driver jestingly expressed, “Yeah. Corey says people call him me all the time. But I probably get Chase the most, and it’s fascinating to me because I look nothing like the guy. Sometimes we will mess with people. If we’re out somewhere and they mistake us, we’ll just roll with it.”

The driver also discloses one such instance where he played along in the confusion: “Chase and I were out a couple of years ago and one person thought we were each other and we rolled with it all night. And I don’t know if that person ever found out,” he laughingly adds.

The interviewer inquires, “That’s amazing. And you’re just answering in front of each other as if you’re the other person?”

The 29-year-old couldn’t help but admit, “Oh yeah, it was great. Like, it was fantastic.”

Watch this Story: “It’s F***ing Fantastic”- Denny Hamlin Puts His Money on Michael Jordan’s Golf Course Instead of Daytona 500 of Golf

Ryan Blaney calls a truce with his best friend after the Talladega race

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Even though the No.12 can be confused with other people, his driving skills are not to be confused. With a strong racing background, Blaney stands 7th in the driver’s standings. However, he had also been part of a few wrecks in the ongoing season, one being the race at Talladega. The race at Talladega saw a neck-to-neck fight between Ryan Blaney and his best friend Bubba Wallace.

There were speculations that it might ruin there were speculations that it might spoil their friendship but Ryan Blaney cleared the air, “We’re trying to beat him just as much as everybody else so that definitely stinks when it’s your buddy. Maybe if it’s someone you don’t really like too much, you wouldn’t blink an eye at it, but when it’s your buddy, you’re just like, ‘Man, that just kind of stinks that one of us got turned.” 

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Surely, this driver has the potential to prove that he is on par with his mistaken look-alike, Chase Elliott. If things work in his favor, perhaps he has a shot at winning the Cup Series.   

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Written by:

Ayantika Maitra

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Ayantika Maitra is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports. It was initially Formula 1 that made her fall in love with the world of motorsports. But quickly, the raw and unfiltered nature of NASCAR is what led her to build an affinity for the Stock Car Racing Series.
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Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh