{"id":148782,"date":"2025-09-16T20:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148782\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T20:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:16:11","slug":"hi-uncle-ryan-blaney-laughs-at-in-race-radio-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148782\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hi, Uncle Ryan!’ Blaney Laughs at In-Race Radio Surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bob <\/p>\n

Bob Pockrass<\/p>\n

FOX Motorsports Insider<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

With 187 laps left Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Ryan Blaney<\/a> heard a familiar voice on his in-car radio.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t a voice he\u2019d expect to hear on the radio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Hi, Uncle Ryan,” the voice said. “Win this race.”<\/p>\n

Blaney recognized the voice. It belonged to his 4-year-old nephew, Bodhi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“\u2019Get Bodhi off the scanner,” Blaney said after a chuckle. “He found [my wife] Gianna\u2019s scanner in the bus and found out how to turn it on. Pretty smart.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blaney\u2019s spotter, Tim Fedewa, replied: “Pretty awesome.”<\/p>\n

There actually is a whole back story to the exchange, which Blaney shared Tuesday morning during a media availability with reporters.<\/p>\n

“My two nephews were at the race,” he said. “They\u2019re 4 and 6.\u00a0They were in the bus beforehand and Gianna, my wife, has a radio in the bus where she can listen.\u00a0Neither of us knew that the button worked.\u00a0I thought it was an obsolete button to where they have that as far as they can make the button not work if you push it, but apparently it does.<\/p>\n

“The 4-year-old was talking to me before the race.\u00a0He\u2019s like, \u2018What\u2019s that thing with Aunt Gianna\u2019s name on it?\u2019\u00a0I was like, \u2018It\u2019s a radio to where Aunt Gianna can listen to my racing.\u2019\u00a0And he was like, \u2018Oh, like a walkie-talkie.\u2019\u00a0I was like, \u2018Yeah, kind of like a walkie-talkie,\u2019”<\/p>\n

Blaney didn\u2019t think anything of it \u2014 until he heard Bodhi on the radio.<\/p>\n

“I guess he took that and remembered it,” Blaney said. “He\u2019s a smart kid.\u00a0He figured it out and turned it on and pushed the button and gave me a little bit of motivation.\u00a0That was pretty cool.<\/p>\n

“It was at a great time.\u00a0It was under caution.\u00a0There was not much going on, and I got a real good kick out of it.\u00a0We all did.\u00a0All of my team got a good kick out of it, so that was funny, and I knew right away who it was.”<\/p>\n

Bodhi isn\u2019t apparently just smart. He also is opportunistic. Blaney\u2019s mom had apparently went to the microwave and that was Bodhi\u2019s opportunity to talk to his uncle.<\/p>\n

“My mother was mortified because she was with them,” Blaney said. “She turned around to microwave something for two seconds and they somehow got the radio.<\/p>\n

“But I think that was the first time I was genuinely shocked of hearing a certain human being\u2019s voice on the radio.”<\/p>\n

It was a good shock.<\/p>\n

“It was a point in the race where there were a lot of cautions after cautions, so that was a nice moment of levity of just a little break,” Blaney said.<\/p>\n

But it likely won\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve got to get that button worked on to where no one pushed it on accident,” Blaney said. “He\u2019s a smart kid.\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t have known how to do that at 4 years old, but he figured it out.”<\/p>\n

Bob Pockrass<\/a> covers NASCAR<\/a> and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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