NASCAR Cup Series driver Austin Dillon and his wife Whitney Ward have been married since December 2017 and have two children. The couple have a son, Ace, born in 2020 and a daughter, Blaize, who was welcomed just last year. Though the beautiful family that Dillon has helped create could serve as a benchmark for young drivers who come into racing, where did it all begin for him?
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In a 2020 interview with Lindsay Czarniak, Dillon and Ward revealed the story behind their marriage and how it all came to be. Dillon had first seen his future wife at a racetrack in 2015 but had no way of connecting with her. He had however, managed to figure out that she was a cheerleader for the Tennessee Titans through some good, old-fashioned research.
As it turned out, Dillon’s fellow driver in the Truck Series, Clay Greenfield, had just been married to a Titans cheerleader, who was close friends with Ward. Using the connection, Dillon had managed to land a date with her. A few phone calls later, Ward had finally fallen for Dillon after he did a ‘Magic Mike’ dance for her during an after-race party in Kentucky.
She said, “He did the Magic Mike dance. Yeah, it was love at first sight, honestly, when he did that.” Adding further detail, she said, “I mean, he took the shirt off and he did the whole nine yards and I was like, ‘No, what? This is my husband.” Meeting Dillon’s mom, Tina, who was a very sweet and down-to-earth person, had sealed the deal for Ward.
Though she’d fallen for a Cup Series driver who was born in one of the most powerful racing dynasties, Childress, Ward herself wasn’t much of a racing fan.
And that had been something that appealed to Dillon a lot.
Why Austin Dillon loved that Ward did not know much about racing?
When Dillon had first invited Ward to one of his races, she’d come along with her entire squad and none of them had even known much about the race that was about to go down. Mentioning that he heard one of them whisper that they were at the ‘Kentucky Derby’, Dillon revealed why it was that he loved it so much.
He said, “I just thought it was cool, you know. And she’s a cheerleader, I get heart. So, like the first night, I was sixteenth in that race. I was kind of bombed after, and she was like, ‘Man, I wanted to get on that radio and tell you, ‘Let’s go! You’re doing good!”. Ward’s enthusiasm to see Dillon win even though she did not know much about the game was what led Dillon’s mother to grow an affinity for her too, the driver said.
A couple of years later, the couple were married at a lavish ceremony at Childress Vineyards.
