Imago
Ryan Blaney and Gianna Tulio | Credits – IMAGO
Imago
Ryan Blaney and Gianna Tulio | Credits – IMAGO
Ryan Blaney is a NASCAR Cup Series champion. That’s the headline version of his life right now. But when he won at Phoenix earlier this year, he didn’t lead with the championship or the comeback drive. He led with the anxiety and silence of a hospital room in November. Most people didn’t fully understand what he meant until Gianna sat down on Samantha Busch’s podcast and told the actual story.
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‘He May Not Have a Heartbeat When He’s Born’
During the delivery prep for Ryan and his wife’s first child, the nurse noticed the baby’s heart rate had dropped too low. Planned delivery changed to an emergency C-section in seconds. Then the doctor looked at Gianna and said, “I want you to prepare yourself. He may not have a heartbeat when he’s born.”
Ryan Blaney wasn’t even in the room yet when they started cutting; there was no time to wait. He came in, walked straight to her, and neither of them said a word. They just held on and waited. “We’re both silent, just holding each other, and we’re just waiting to hear a heartbeat,” Gianna recalled. One thing in her head the whole time was just let me hear him cry.
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“Thank the Lord, when he came out, after a few seconds, you hear a cry. And that’s all we wanted to hear. And then we both just lost it and bawled our eyes out because we were so frozen waiting for that moment.”
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Gianna had hyperemesis gravidarum, severe, persistent vomiting that made it impossible to keep food or prenatal vitamins down for months. Weekly IV treatments just to get nutrients in. Acupuncture to manage the worst of it. It only started to ease up late in the pregnancy, right when the offseason kicked in. Charley Bennett Blaney was born on November 17, 2025. The couple would go on to complete a year as husband and wife soon after, on December 12.
Gianna shared all of this on Samantha Busch’s podcast, a show Busch started specifically to have the conversations that largely stay hidden from the public eye. “This is exactly why I started this podcast,” Busch wrote when she posted the episode. For Gianna, saying it out loud was part of working through it. Most of it had never left the hospital room. Ryan acknowledged this publicly for the first time a few months later, in Phoenix.
Ryan Blaney Dedicates Phoenix Win to Gianna and Charley After Comeback Drive
The race itself was a mess early. Pit road penalty, loose wheel, sent to the back twice. He came through anyway, led 28 laps, got past Ty Gibbs with 10 to go, and won. His 18th Cup Series win.
The first thing he said afterward had nothing to do with the race. “This one is different. Everything we went through, Gianna being so brave, the uncertainty of Charley’s arrival, it puts everything into perspective. This trophy belongs to them.”
First time he’d said any of it out loud in public. Since then, the Ryan Blaney Family Foundation has put real focus toward maternal and family health, and a $550,000 auction earlier this year was part of that push. Gianna talking openly on podcasts about high-risk pregnancy and mental health is another part. The Victory Lane moment gave them both a reason to speak. As for Blaney, he is third in points right now, with one win and six top-10s on the season. He DNF’d at Talladega last weekend.
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Edited by
Yeswanth Praveen