At the NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 race on Sunday, March 1, drivers Ryan Blaney and William Byron paid tribute to the late Kobe Bryant in Fontana, California.
Blaney’s car scheme was dedicated to the Los Angeles Lakers legend, with purple and gold colors and a sign for the charitable website MambaOnThree.org. Blaney, who drives the #12 Ford Mustang for Penske Racing, is sponsored by the sports drink company Bodyarmor. Bryant was both an investor and a member of the board of directors for the company, and Blaney met him through the organization in Oct. 2019. When they met, the driver gifted him a race-worn fire suit from his last regular season race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Blaney remembered that in those 20 minutes they shared, Bryant asked questions and tried to learn as much as he could about racing.
“Just the way he asked questions, [he] was so interested in it, to me I could see where [what] they call it, the ‘Mamba mentality,’ comes from and how he used it in basketball to become so great,” Blaney said. “That was the coolest moment. I don’t get star struck very often. I knew all the answers, but I was getting nervous that I would answer wrong when he was asking me questions he knew nothing about. That’s just his atmosphere. It was technical stuff and shows what kind of amazing, intellectual person that he was. That was something that really tickled me, how excited he was to learn about it.”
It’s clear that even in his post-playing days Bryant stayed busy, and he was always eager to learn new things from any person or athlete’s perspective. Along with Ryan Blaney, William Byron also made some changes to his car for the race. For Byron, the driver of the #24 Axalta Chevrolet, his normal paint scheme of a blue background with red flames turned into black, purple and gold for the Mamba.
“We continue to pray for all of the families,” Byron said. “It’s humbling to be able to run such a special car, especially in the Los Angeles area. I’m a huge sports fan and followed Kobe’s career really closely like so many other people. He left a legacy that goes beyond basketball and has reached across all of the sports world and into many different communities where he gave back. I’m very happy that Axalta wanted to do this, and I hope to make everyone proud in the #24 on Sunday.”
Going into the third race of the 2020 season for the drivers, Ryan Blaney sits at the top of the standings ahead of last week’s winner, Joey Logano, as well as Kevin Harvick. It is safe to say that Blaney has had the “Mamba mentality” thus far this season, as he has an average finish of 6.5 with 23 laps led. It is amazing to see how much a legend like Kobe Bryant meant to everyone in the world of sports, and how his legacy and the “Mamba mentality” will carry on forever.
Photo Courtesy of Stacy Revere
