The Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway was a wild ride for Ryan Blaney, and not just because of the on-track chaos. The 2023 Cup champ started strong, qualifying second with a blistering 15.120-second lap at 126.905 mph, hot on AJ Allmendinger’s tail. He kept pace with the leaders through a grueling night of 14 cautions, battling brutal tire wear that turned the half-mile bullring into a survival game.

Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford stayed clean, dodging wrecks that claimed others, and he crossed the line fourth behind Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski, and Zane Smith, a clutch top-five that kept his playoff hopes alive. But the real story wasn’t his finish; it was what happened over the radio. During one of Bristol’s many cautions, Blaney’s four-year-old nephew accidentally hijacked the team’s frequency, turning a tense playoff race into a viral moment of pure joy.

Blaney’s nephew steals the show

Talking to Bob Pockrass, Ryan Blaney couldn’t help but chuckle about the Bristol radio hijack. “That was funny. I was laughing so yeah… neither of us knew that the button worked. I thought it was an obsolete button,” he said. NASCAR’s radios are locked down tight with encrypted Motorola channels, but a bus auxiliary device, meant for family listening, turned out to be live.

Blaney’s four-year-old nephew stumbled onto it, mistaking it for a walkie-talkie. During one of the race’s 14 cautions, when tire wear was shredding strategies, the kid’s voice broke through, giving the No. 12 team a moment of levity amid the chaos.

Blaney explained, “My 4-year-old nephew was like, ‘What’s that with Aunt Gianna’s name on it?’… He figured it out, turned it on, pushed the button, and gave me a little bit of motivation.” The timing couldn’t have been better. Bristol’s relentless cautions, driven by a softer right-side tire, had everyone on edge.

Hearing his nephew’s innocent pep talk was a spark of joy, a rare break in a night where Blaney fought to stay in the playoff hunt. NASCAR’s seen radio weirdness before, but a preschooler cheering “Uncle Ryan” was a first, turning into a viral clip that stole hearts.

He knew the culprit instantly, “I knew right away who it was when he called me Uncle Ryan… That’s either Bodhi or Louie, and I’d just talked to Bodhi about this radio.” Blaney’s nephews, Bodhi or Louie, were with family pre-race, and one’s curiosity cracked the encrypted line.

The moment, replayed across social media, stood out against Bristol’s high-attrition grind, where Blaney’s fourth-place finish was a testament to his composure. Unlike past radio fails, think Keselowski’s mic issues, this was wholesome, a kid’s voice lifting the team’s spirits.

The relief was real, “It was a point in the race with a lot of cautions after cautions… so that was like a nice moment of levity, a little break, and we all got a kick out of it.” With tire failures and wrecks piling up, the team needed a reset. Blaney, sitting on the playoff cutline, leaned on that laughter to stay sharp, landing a podium despite the chaos. The nephew’s accidental cameo became a highlight of a race that tested every driver’s nerve.

Blaney gave props, “Yeah, smart kid. I wouldn’t have known how to do that at 4 years old, but he figured it out.” Cracking NASCAR’s radio system, even by accident, is no small feat. Teams use tightly monitored frequencies to avoid interference. That a four-year-old pulled it off made it a storybook moment, one that turned Blaney’s Bristol night into something more than just a third-place finish. Fans ate it up, and the viral buzz carried into the playoff push.

Blaney eyes New Hampshire’s tire edge

As the playoffs shift to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Blaney is riding high after Bristol, and he’s pumped about a new tire setup that could shake things up. “Fall-off is always the key, and I think we’re going to get more of that,” he told FanBuzz.

Goodyear’s bringing a tire combo with more grip and lap-time fall-off, used at short tracks like Martinsville, Bowman Gray, North Wilkesboro, and Richmond since last November. Blaney, who hasn’t run it at Loudon yet, loved it at Richmond, stating, “It had a lot of fall-off. You could kind of make it upset and you pay the penalty for it late, different than a Bristol-type situation, which that’s kind of an outlier.”

Team Penske’s Joey Logano tested the tire at Loudon, giving Blaney confidence it’ll spice up passing and strategy. Unlike Bristol’s tire-chewing chaos, New Hampshire’s setup should reward drivers who push hard but punish those who overdo it, a balance Blaney’s ready to exploit after his third-place grit.

With his nephew’s radio hijack still making him smile, Blaney’s heading into the Round of 12 with momentum, a sharp team, and a little cheerleader who turned a tough night into a heartwarming NASCAR moment.