NASCAR Wives Show Off, Chase Elliott Calls Blaney A Liar, Hailie Deegan Robbed, Gibbs Honored

Just like the end-of-season pool party at your little league coach's house, NASCAR held it's annual banquet and awards show this past weekend in Nashville.

For the first time in a month, we saw actual drivers one again - this time, though, they traded out their firesuits for actual suits and pit-crew for wives, girlfriends and fiancés.

And, shockingly, they were the ones who stole the show!

Frankly, we don't appreciate NASCAR wives enough on this program, and we're gonna fix that today.

Elsewhere, Chase Elliott FIRES back at Ryan Blaney's insane chicken wings allegations and invites him to his room (what?), the Gibbs family speaks for the first time since last month's tragic death and Hailie Deegan gets robbed at an airport!

How's that for a cliffhanger?

Four tires, a big 'ol tank of Sunoco fuel and a slight chassis adjustment to get our work week going. It's Monday Morning Pit-Stop - hot wives and robbing blind edition!

Chase Elliott won Most Popular Driver in the Cup Series, while Hailie Deegan took the honor for the Trucks. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Wives (and drivers) show out on red carpet

For the first time in a month, all the drivers, owners, pit crews and, yes, their significant others were together in a room at the same time.

All the good folks got together to put a big bow on the 2022 NASCAR season, dole out some awards along the way, take a few pics on the red carpet and hear from our champion, Joey Logano.

I know this will shock some folks, but Chase Elliott won the Cup Series' Most Popular Driver of the Year for the fifth straight season. Didn't see it coming, did you?!

More on Chase in a minute, though.

This portion of the programming is for the glitz and glamour of the event, including couples taking pictures at the entrance like it's your senior prom.

Roll tape, courtesy of NASCAR.com.

Have a day, Ross Chastain!

Didn't see this coming from Chase Briscoe.

Kyle and Samantha Busch always show out.

Austin Dillon does well!

Tyler Reddick finished high up in the standings this year.

Zane Smith is gonna be a household name soon.

Yep, you win, Daniel Suarez.

A lot to digest there, but what a showing from our fellas! There were a few I left out for space reasons (sorry, Blaney and Bowman), and a few guys that showed up ALONE (head on a swivel, Chase Elliott fans!).

Daniel Suarez and new fiancé Julia Piquet were absolute showstoppers, Zane Smith is a textbook up-and-comer in the sport, Kyle and Samantha Busch are true vets, and Tyler Reddick knows size doesn't matter.

Hat's off to everyone. Good stuff.

Chase Elliott says Ryan Blaney is a liar

Speaking of one of those (allegedly) single fellas, Chase Elliott edged out Ryan Blaney (and by edge, I mean crushed) in Most Popular Driver voting. That's five straight years for Clyde, who is now just 11 years behind his daddy's 16.

But we don't care about that, because it was expected.

What we didn't know, though, was how Elliott was gonna respond to Blaney's egregious accusations last month that Chase eats chicken wings ... with a fork and knife!

Jarring stuff.

Elliott was asked about wild claim, and called Blaney a nasty woman (sort of) who is full of lies! And then he invited his best bud to his room to see the trophy he'll never win.

Glad we see the record straight here, because I'm not sure ANYONE who eats wings with utensils is worthy of being the face of a sport. Just can't have that.

Then again, Chase also allegedly eats pizza like a psycho, too, so I'm not sure who to believe here.

Stay tuned.

Ty Gibbs gets standing ovation

There were plenty of fun moments in Nashville, but we also had some of the serious stuff, too.

For the first time since his father, Coy, tragically died in his sleep just hours after he won last month's Xfinity Series championship, Ty Gibbs made a public appearance.

As he made his way across the stage in Nashville, the crowd cheered. And cheered. And kept cheering.

I don't wanna rehash all the Gibbs stuff from last month, because, frankly, it's probably not appropriate in a 'NASCAR Wives Offseason Edition' column. You can read my initial reaction to the news here.

That being said, team owner Joe Gibbs - Coy's father - also spoke over the weekend and thanked the NASCAR community for their support over the past few weeks.

Good stuff, coach.

Hailie Deegan robbed at an airport

On our way out, let's check in with Hailie Deegan, who - like Chase - also won Most Popular Driver (Truck Series) over the weekend.

But the story here isn't about what happened in Nashville ... it's about what happened on her way out!

Harrowing stuff.

For starters, how about the TSA fellas standing pat and doing nothing? Look, they're trained to search for bombs and liquids over three ounces, not chase down criminals in Terminal B.

Sorry, Hailie. You're on your own!

Deegan's longtime boyfriend, Chase Cabre, seems pretty pissed at the world, too. Takes aim at what I assume is Gen Z, which, frankly, is fine by me. Gen Z sucks. Sorry, those are just the facts.

Finally, gonna need someone to track down airport security footage of Hailie Deegan and Chase frantically running through the airport after our burglar.

That has to be A+ footage.

Anyway, that's all for now. Another offseason week down. Thank goodness for NASCAR wives.

Take us home, Larry Mac!