“Succeeds at Everything” – Bubba Wallace Reveals Why Best Friend Ryan Blaney Excels at Other Sports

Published 11/17/2020, 1:16 PM EST

Recently, a number of NASCAR drivers gave their thoughts on a variety of random questions just for the fun of it. One of the questions pertained to which NASCAR driver would succeed in another sport. A common consensus revealed that Jimmie Johnson or Ryan Blaney were incredibly athletic. As it turns out, Bubba Wallace fell into the Ryan Blaney camp.

Also sharing his opinion were, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Matt DiBenedetto, and Brad Keselowski. Surprisingly, Blaney felt that Corey LaJoie would be a great pick, while Ryan Newman picked Austin Dillon. Meanwhile, Clint Bowyer, William Byron, and Martin Truex Jr stuck with Johnson.

Wallace said, “I would say Blaney at basketball. Blaney’s good at everything. In any sport we play, he just succeeds at everything. So I would say basketball. I’ve played basketball with him for a couple years, and he’s pretty talented. I could also say Corey LaJoie at baseball. We went to high school together, and he was on the baseball team.”

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Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney are not the only ones who enjoys basketball

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It is worth noting that Denny Hamlin established a mini basketball league called the Hoop Group. This league became quite popular and several drivers were eager to throw their hat in the ring. The interested party members included Kasey Kahne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, and Michael Waltrip.

Denny Hamlin confessed that they may not be as good as the professionals, but they have fun. There were five teams in this league, The Stock Car Steelers, The Wise Men, Team Walnuts, Team Shockers, and Team GFY.

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Coming back to Ryan Blaney, he was fortunate to meet the late Kobe Bryant in 2018. Part of Blaney’s ability could also be down to blood. To be precise, the Los Angeles Lakers drafted his uncle, Dale. However, he elected to pursue racing over a career in the NBA.

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.