DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Ryan Blaney hugged and kissed his now-fiancee moments before he slid into his Ford for a NASCAR playoff race last October at Martinsville Speedway.
Gianna Tulio gave the standard goodbye most significant others offer to drivers on the grid, “Good luck, be safe, I’m proud of you.” Tulio threw in one more tip before they parted.
“And remember,” she said, “ be Ryan (Bleeping) Blaney.”
Her quip was caught on camera as part of the Netflix NASCAR “Full Speed” documentary that chronicled an inside look at drivers and their personal and private lives during the championship races.
It’s one Tulio can’t live down.
“She was mortified when that was caught on microphone,” Blaney said, laughing. “When we watched it a few days before it came out she’s like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe they put that in there.’ And it was on the trailer. I was like, ‘That’s bold putting it on the trailer.’ But it was fine. I think she’s gotten over her embarrassment of that and she’s embraced it.”
Like any moment that goes viral, the couple might even cash in on the profane motivational push.
“Maybe we’ll make some shirts,” Blaney said. “I can’t have the full wording on the shirts, but we’ll bleep out some letters.”
Coming soon on a Blaney T-shirt to a NASCAR retail shop near you, #RFB.
“That was the cheesiest, dumbest line, but the absolute best line in that whole thing,” cracked Blaney’s best friend, Bubba Wallace. “Every time I see him now, I’m just, ‘Hey man, I’m just going to go out and be Ryan Effing Blaney tonight.’”
There are Blaney T-shirts out there, only with a more G-rated caption: NASCAR champion. Blaney was indeed “Ryan Bleeping Blaney” that day and won Martinsville to advance to the championship race. He clinched his first Cup Series title a week later at Phoenix Raceway, and enjoyed the spoils that followed, like an appearance on the “Today” show.
Has championship success gone to Blaney’s head?
“Man, we don’t even talk anymore, he’s big-time,” Wallace joked. “I have to call his assistant to even just get a phone call with him. He’s out playing golf right now and I’m sitting here talking to you guys. He called and said ‘Move Bubba’s media day schedule so he can’t golf with us.’”
Kidding aside, Wallace was in a good mental space after admitting he wrestled with depression and jealousy over Blaney’s triumph. Wallace and Blaney even hit New York in the offseason — though you might have missed the moment on social media. Blaney was cropped out of a photo of him and Wallace at a Knicks game, with the team’s social media account writing, “@bubbawallace in the house tonight.”
“I guess you don’t want to be Ryan Effing Blaney in that moment,” Wallace said.
