NASCAR pit crews deal with all sorts of weird and unexpected issues when their cars pull down pit road for a stop, including quickly swiping the nose of the car clean before it pulls away again.
Debris and trash from the grandstands can get caught up in the grille sometimes — especially on windy days — and what pit crew members wipe away typically isn’t that interesting. But during Sunday’s Daytona 500 when driver Ryan Blaney pulled down pit road, his teammates walked away from the pit stop with an unexpected tip.
When they cleared off the grille in the middle of the race, they were stunned to find a perfectly usable $5 bill.
Here is the radio exchange between Blaney and his No. 12 Ford crew chief, Jeremy Bullins, heard on FOX Sports’ new Radioactive video.
Bullins: I don’t know about you, but we’re making money down here. There was a $5 bill stuck in the grille.
Blaney: Is it a full $5 bill, or is it beat up?
Bullins: Oh yeah, it’s almost mint condition.
Blaney: Vending machine worthy. 10-4.
Well, it’s probably not mint condition. But it does look pretty good, based on a photo from Team Penske’s Twitter account.
Although Blaney and the No. 12 team won the second stage of the Daytona 500, they were among the 21 cars caught up in wrecks in the final laps and did not finish. Officially, Blaney placed 31st.
NASCAR’s next race is Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
