{"id":896607,"date":"2026-09-15T11:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T11:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/896607\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T11:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T11:46:09","slug":"chase-elliott-and-ryan-blaney-surprise-wnba-star-sophie-cunningham-with-custom-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/896607\/","title":{"rendered":"Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney surprise WNBA star Sophie Cunningham with custom gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMWcxajNfc2h3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Follow us on Google Discover <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>In a cool crossover, Sophie Cunningham has stepped into the NASCAR scene. <\/p>\n<p>Sophie Cunningham has quietly turned into one of the WNBA\u2019s biggest mainstream draws, drawing non-stop attention both on and off the court. <\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s no stranger to the racing world, either. Back in November, she stole the show as an honorary pace car driver at a NASCAR event, even going viral after hanging out with Sydney Sweeney in the pits. <\/p>\n<p>Cunningham\u2019s natural star power makes her a perfect fit for crossover events, bridging the gap between women\u2019s basketball and the broader sports culture.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"grv-tpwp-permalink-overlay\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/talkingpoints\/talk-nba\/91302f16-will-these-be-the-tanking-teams-in-the-nb\/\" aria-label=\"Will these be the tanking teams in the NBA next season? If not, who is? \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">       <\/p>\n<p> Will these be the tanking teams in the NBA next season? If not, who is?  <\/p>\n<p>     Sophie Cunningham showered with gifts upon NASCAR visit<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/topic\/sophie-cunningham\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/topic\/sophie-cunningham\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sophie Cunningham<\/a> turned heads during this month\u2019s visit to World Wide Technology Raceway, stepping into a whole new arena as a guest pit road reporter for USA Network. <\/p>\n<p>She soaked in the full race-day experience, strolling the garage, mingling with fans, and swapping gifts with Cup Series stars like Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eu.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nascar\/2026\/09\/13\/sophie-cunningham-nascar-race-usa-network-pit-road-reporter\/91752978007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">USA Today<\/a> noted that Elliott\u00a0gifted her with\u00a0NAPA Auto Parts racing jackets, and she\u00a0received a bottle of bourbon\u00a0from Blaney.<\/p>\n<p>As well as this, she signed hats for Austin Dillon\u2019s kids, and the driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet\u00a0told her, \u201cWe\u2019re huge fans. We love what you stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MORE SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM STORIES<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham also had a mic put on her, featuring her on the pre-race show alongside Marty Snider, Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton.<\/p>\n<p>But now attentions turn back to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/topic\/wnba\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/topic\/wnba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WNBA<\/a>, with the Indiana Fever getting their season back underway against the Toronto Tempo on the 18th of September. <\/p>\n<p>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=hitc.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Add to Preferred Sources <\/a>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover In a cool crossover, Sophie Cunningham has stepped into the NASCAR scene. Sophie&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,10879,82,630],"class_list":["post-896607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}