It is no secret that Ryan Blaney is obsessed with Star Wars. He wears an elaborate Darth Vader tattoo on his right thigh. He once went viral for dressing as Princess Leia at a Halloween party. The motorcoach he lives in on race weekends at the racetrack is fashioned with custom Star Wars decor.
So, it should also come as no surprise that on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, at the most crucial moment of his NASCAR career, in a bumper-banging dogfight with two cars at once, one blocking his path to a potential race win and the other racing against him for a championship, that his blood pressure, nerves, heart rate, all of it, was soothed and schooled by two voices in his head, one quite literally.