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Ryan Blaney “Really Excited” to Work With Kevin Harvick’s Former Spotter After Spire Acquired Josh Williams

Published 01/26/2024, 9:42 PM EST

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Winning a NASCAR Cup Series race or championship is not a one-man job. An entire team of a pit crew, crew chief, driver, and spotter all working in tandem provides the team with the expected results. And this was the case for the 2023 Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney. However, after a long run of nine years of partnership, Blaney will step into the 2024 season without his former spotter, Josh Williams.

Williams had been with Blaney since his early days at Wood Brother Racing. Over the years, the duo was able to gain confidence and started progressing steadily in the Cup Series races. William’s even moved to Team Penske alongside Blaney, and this is where their chemistry started to peak. With nine Cup race wins and a championship victory in 2023, the No. 12 from Penske will surely miss out on his old partner, who will be joining Zane Smith at Spire Motorsports. In a bid to fill the void left by his former partner, Ryan Blaney onboarded Tim Fedewa as his spotter for the 2024 Cup Series.

Ryan Blaney highlights the difficulties of forming synergy with his new spotter

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The most important aspect of team sport is synergy and trust, this sure can tip the scales of the results in favor of an athlete or against them. For most of his career, Blaney was fortunate to nail those very aspects with his spotter Josh Williams and the recent success is an example of that.

Explaining how difficult the transition from one spotter to another in an interview with Bob Pockrass, Blaney said, “It is definitely a difficult thing to go through. Josh and I worked together for nine years, so hearing a little bit of different voice in your ear throughout these races is definitely a big change. We had a great 9 years together, obviously won a lot of races and a championship together. So best of luck to him in his next chapter.”

He then went on to add how the experience it has been working with Fedewa who also is an experienced campaigner himself in NASCAR. “I’m really excited to work with him. Obviously a great racer, a lot of races with Kevin. I was really fortunate that when I was looking for a spotter he was available. It was great working with him at the Phoenix test, that was the first time we were able to work through stuff before the Coliseum. Obviously Daytona, Atalanta back to back, we’re gonna have to sort through a lot of stuff.”

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Tim Fedewa is no stranger to the feeling of winning the championship and will be using his resources and experience with Blaney to get more wins in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series.

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Tim Fedewa has all the right credentials to be a championship spotter

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Fedewa had a racing career before he took up the role of a spotter in NASCAR. Notably, he had 4 wins in the Busch Series under his belt. The big change in his professional career came in 2007 when he became a spotter for the new Red Bull Racing team for their No. 84 A.J. Allmendinger. After spending two good seasons with the team, he parted ways with them in 2009.

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However, by this time, he wasn’t able to get big wins or notable accolades for himself or his team. But that soon changed when he joined Stewart-Haas Racing to spot Kevin Harvick. In their very first season together, the duo won the Cup Series Championship. Fedewa was always with Harvick until he retired from full-time driving in 2023, thus forging a decade-long partnership. Now he has a good challenge on his hands, partnering alongside the defending champion, Ryan Blaney.

It will be interesting to see how quickly the duo gets up to speed, as they won’t have a lot of time to make adjustments when the season kicks off.

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Written by:

Chintan Devgania

617Articles

One take at a time

It was the Fast & Furious movies that acted as my gateway to the world of cars and motorsports. Later, as I completed my undergrad in Journalism, I learned how to channel my thoughts and opinions, which only helped me kick-start my career as a sportswriter. Having written multiple copies for the Scottish Daily, I am now looking to expand and contribute at EssentiallySports as a NASCAR writer, informing, enlightening, and entertaining the fans with my stories.
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Edited by:

Shivali Nathta