Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace are some of the closest friends in NASCAR with a relationship that spans the better part of two decades.
So after Wallace and his wife, Amanda, welcomed their baby boy Becks last September, the Team Penske driver got a front row seat to Bubba's life as a family man over the past eight months.
"Yeah, he's a mushy teddy bear now," Blaney said of his friend. "Yeah, it's cool. Bubba and I have known each other for two decades, 20 years, raced together, grew up together, live five minutes down the road from each other nowadays, and really good friends."
"It's cool to see kind of — it's weird when you get to that period of life, whether it's yourself or your friends are going through big transitions like getting married or having kids and things like that. So it's great. I'm happy for him. I'm happy for him and Amanda," he continued.
"It's been a pleasure to just be close to them. ... But yeah, it's been cool to see — I'm sure it changes you. I can't speak to that matter. I'm not a dad. But just to see his change and his outlook on life and his attitude about everything, it's cool to see and I see it a lot because I spend a lot of time with him."
It's definitely cool to see how Blaney and Wallace have remained so close throughout their come-up in racing. And it's equally as cool to see Bubba's transition into fatherhood with the woman he's known since high school.
Blaney walked away with a P1 finish in Sunday's Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, while Wallace placed just outside the top-five.
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