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via Imago

via Imago

NASCAR’s current rumor mills have picked on a fine detail from Ryan Blaney’s antics at Darlington, trying to intentionally ram into William Byron. However, it was the latter who sparked the whole dramatic situation, trying to thread the needle going three-wide early in the race. While it could have just been the drivers going at each other for better track position, could there be more at play between Blaney and Byron? Rumors online on X suggest that William Byron and Erin Blaney have ended their romance, and this is what prompted Blaney to act in the manner he did.

Ryan Blaney is looking for payback

During Lap 129 of the race, Byron fancied his chances to make a pass in a three-wide situation. Martin Truex Jr was outside of him, while Blaney was hugging the upper lane close to the wall. However, in his desperate attempt, Byron nudged off Truex Jr’s No. 19 car, which in turn caused a big wreck. Blaney, who was running the outside lane, found himself on the receiving end of the big blows, which resulted in big damage to his racecar.

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It did look like his pit crew had resolved the issue, and he was back in contention for the race. But his toe link snapped, and he almost repaid the favor to Byron by trying to wreck him coming off the pit road. Sharing his feelings after the early exit, he explained why he didn’t hit Bryon’s car. “I’m not going to him. I’ll save that for another time. I almost did on accident, actually, I got on the apron and toe link was busted. I almost hit him when I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to show my displeasure, so we’ll see where it goes.”

USA Today via Reuters

Byron, reflecting on the incident with Blaney after the race, said, “I felt like I was ahead of them, and the exit is really narrow right there. I was surprised I was even in that spot. I felt like I would never got to the bottom of three wide there but the lane was there into 1 and my car turned really good, and I got almost clear of Martin, and then, and hate that, that happened. I don’t want to crash, especially that early in the race. So I didn’t really expect that to happen. Probably could’ve given a little more room and I don’t know it gets really tight right there.”

However, fans online were reading between the lines and suspected that not all was well between Blaney and Byron. And perhaps the split between Erin Blaney and the HMS Star could have been the reason for the fallout between the two drivers today.

Fans react to Ryan Blaney and William Byron’s heated tussle at Darlington

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Ryan Blaney’s sister, Erin, has been dating William Byron for a while now. However, after watching the two drivers go head-to-head, trying to wreck each other during the race, a fan sensed something going wrong between William Byron and his girlfriend, writing, “don’t have to be buddies anymore since he broke up with your sister”.

Confirming the news, another fan replied by stating, “Fairly certain the William / Erin break up is new news to many…”

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Many fans didn’t have the knowledge of Erin and Byron calling it quits and asked, “wait they broke up?”. In reply, a user wrote, “It happened a while ago but William and Erin never said anything public about it”.

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Adding more weight to the rumor and speculation, one fan highlighted the fact that Erin has been absent from attending and that they have unfollowed each other on Instagram. “They unfollowed each other on Instagram and she hasn’t been at a single race this season”.

For the time being, it’s hard to confirm if Erin Blaney and William Byron have indeed ended their relationship. However, looking at how Byron and Blaney have been going at each other, it wouldn’t be too wrong to speculate!