“And remember, be Ryan f—– Blaney.” Gianna Tulio’s battle call to Ryan Blaney during the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship race stuck with fans. Tulio made an impression with her powerful words, as Blaney did go on to clinch the championship. Yet even amidst rooting for her husband, Tulio has strong reasons to worry. Those reasons are mostly related to NASCAR’s innovation.
Since 2022, the Next-Gen car has been striving to achieve greater parity among race teams. It has also aimed to raise the notch of superspeedway racing, and low-tier race teams have gotten greater chances to perform better. However, it has also led to horrifying crashes, leaving Gianna Tulio and others worried.
NASCAR’s penchant for chaos concerns Ryan Blaney’s wife
Well, any family member would be tense if their loved one risked injury in a sport. NASCAR is such a high-risk sport with cars banging fenders at over 150 MPH. And the Next-Gen car complicated things in 2022. That season was filled with crashes, from Ross Chastain running over Kyle Busch in the All-Star Race to Cody Ware injuring his ankle in Texas, many wrecks unfolded.
The most notable one was Kurt Busch‘s crash in Pocono, which resulted in a career-derailing concussion. Although NASCAR tweaked the Next-Gen with regard to safety following 2022, the wrecks have hardly stopped. The 2024 season saw many violent flips like Corey LaJoie faced in Michigan or Josh Berry did in Daytona. Now, Ryan Blaney is seeing a handful in 2025.
The Team Penske driver owns 1 win, 7 top fives, and 8 top tens this season. But at the same time, Ryan Blaney also incurred 6 DNFs, leading his wife Gianna to worry a lot. She admitted so in a recent episode of ‘Believe in the Good with Haley Dillon’: “I sit and have anxiety…You know how hard it is for them to win just one race. I can only imagine what he’s thinking when he’s close to winning a race. I’m over here freaking out. I know how hard it is, how competitive it is. Every race, I swear, as he gets better, I get more nervous every time.” With three laps to go in the Atlanta race, Austin Dillon spun and clipped Blaney’s right rear, incurring his sixth DNF to add to the crashes that Blaney faced in Talladega, Charlotte, etc.
What is more? The Next-Gen car does not make things easier. The history of mishaps in NASCAR’s innovation has taken an emotional toll on Gianna Tulio. She expressed her tense feelings: “These new cars too, the Next-Gen cars. I think everyone is more nervous about these cars. Especially how a lot of the wrecks have looked, the flipping, especially last year… I don’t think we’re going anywhere great with that… It’s scary. So my nerves are more for him to just be safe…But obviously, when they don’t win, you have to be their support system. Like you just need to be proud of yourself and the day that you had. Like you’ve finished safely, that’s more important at the end of the day. You’re not like, injured, hurt, in an ambulance, a helicopter, or whatever.”
These feelings may have gotten stronger recently, as Ryan Blaney is becoming a father.
Learning the ropes from a best friend
Last week, Ryan Blaney and Gianna Tulio slipped a heartwarming piece of news into the community. They unraveled photos of Gianna posing with a beautiful baby bump. Expecting the arrival of a first child can be exciting, but it can also be tiresome. The power couple’s due date is in December, and that took a load off Blaney’s shoulders.
This meant he would be able to focus on fetching a second Cup Series championship, and then devote all his time and energy to welcoming his baby. Blaney said recently, “We’re in the winter, so that takes a lot of stress off.” Nevertheless, the preparation is no less hectic, as Gianna Tulio went through health complications, and Blaney is fully preparing to be a dad.
At this time, Ryan Blaney can rely on the help of his good friend in NASCAR, Bubba Wallace. Wallace and his wife, Amanda, welcomed baby Becks Hayden last year. So, Blaney is looking up to Wallace for his help. He said, “I ask him every day. I ask him all the time, and I see it firsthand, being over at his place and flying together and stuff like that. You know, seeing Becks around and watching Becks grow up and stuff like that has been kind of neat. So yeah, I ask him all the time for advice, what are some goods and what are the struggles of a newborn and things like that. So it’s been nice to have him right there and kind of go through the same thing.”
Clearly, it is a hectic time for Gianna Tulio and her husband. On top of that, NASCAR’s Next-Gen complications are not helping. Nevertheless, Tulio is powering through this time, and we wish her the best for her motherhood journey.
The post Ryan Blaney’s Wife Reveals Emotional Toll of NASCAR’s Next-Gen Chaos: “It’s Scary” appeared first on EssentiallySports.