Ryan Blaney Congratulates “Best Friend” Chase Elliott for the NASCAR Title and Lauds Jimmie Johnson

Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott are fairly good friends on and off the track. So when the latter clinched his maiden NASCAR Cup Series championship, Blaney was quick to congratulate him. After ambushing him and spraying Elliott with champagne, they hugged it out.

Later on, he paid tribute to Chase Elliott on Twitter and even had a special message reserved for the outgoing Jimmie Johnson. He acknowledged the 7-time Cup Series Champion and wished him well for his future endeavors in IndyCar. Johnson has been around for a long time and finally stepped away from NASCAR after two decades.

Coming back to Elliott though, Blaney said, “I’m so proud of you and glad to call you my best friend. Looking forward to competing with you for years to come.”

How do Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott know each other?

As mentioned in Blaney’s tweet, the two of them practically grew up competing with each other. In addition to that, they are also great friends with Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones.

The same can be said for a number of the younger drivers who are in the Cup Series for 5 years or less.

According to Blaney, he raced alongside Chase, Bubba, and Jones ever since they were 10 years old. Fast-forward to several years later, and they are all reunited in the Cup Series as rivals.

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He said, “So yeah it is neat, some of us always talk about it and look at it like man could you believe where we were 10-15 years ago? And now we’re here.

“We’ve all made it and made it with really good teams and good homes. We’ve been very fortunate throughout our lives to get some cool opportunities.”

Blaney hoped that they could all stick around in the long run and hopefully race against drivers from their younger days. The 26-year-old confessed that it may not happen, but a guy can surely dream.