Over the last couple of months, the regular season was pretty interesting to say the least and the playoffs are in full swing, and now it is getting down to the wire for the Championship race in Phoenix. Every driver and every team has faced the highs, the lows, and the stress of the playoffs and each time I get to see what every driver has to face in all three series, especially for the cup and Xfinity series. Throughout those races, I have raced in some in both series to get a feel of some of the tracks while also being by Ryan's side during the times I am not racing and vice versa when I am racing. During the pre-race ceremonies each week, we come up with two pre-race rituals one for me and Ryan and the other for our group (as described in chapter 3) as we do them before before the pre-race ceremony starts and let me tell you it is an amazing experience, not only to race along other drivers, but also to share these moments with my friends and my handsome boyfriend and even though it is tough to not be super affectionate as much as we normally would be because some people do not know that we are together. To other people they see us as two roommates who also happen to be best friends and teammates, but to some others, they know that we are together.

Three weeks prior to the Championship race, was the round of 8 playoff races in Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami, and Martinsville. That round went pretty well for Joey and Chase as Joey won in Vegas locking himself into the championship 4 and Chase advanced on points. However, Ryan didn't have the best of luck during those three races and would end up getting eliminated. I did my very best to cheer up my man every week after the races with us cuddling and doing a Star Wars movie marathon, and one of the sweetest things he said to me during one of those days, he told me that aside from Star Wars I am the best medicine for him because as long as he comes home to me that is what mattered the most to him. Also, Martinsville was very interesting as we saw the normal short-tack racing and of course the move that stole the whole race...the video game move by Ross Chastain that has been deemed the hail melon and I mean everyone has been talking about it. The Championship 4 drivers of the 2022 season are Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, and Ross Chastain.

Throughout that time and even prior to the playoffs, I have designed a special gift for the guys, have gone to the shop a couple of times for meetings, media obligations, and also overlooking my car for my first official season as a driver in the NASCAR Xfinity series for Team Penske. In between my busy schedule I always try and make time for my best friends, new friends including Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, and many more drivers, and most importantly making time for Ryan even though we see each other every night at home, but it is also nice to enjoy some alone time together or going out on dates. Which brings us to now.

Right now we are in Phoenix for the week for Championship week and when people say that it is a very hectic week, believe me it is very hectic. A couple of days later it is now Saturday and it is coming down to the wire for the end of the season, I texted Brittany last night asking her if she wants to go shopping with me before qualifying and she agrees to go since I am not racing tonight. I got up around my usual time, cooked and ate breakfast with Ryan as he asked me about my plans for the day, promising him to be back before qualifying, and talking about the upcoming race tonight and tomorrow. Plus, we are also going to be getting together with everyone to watch the Xfinity race later tonight. After finishing breakfast, I changed into my outfit for the day, put some makeup on, and also grab my folder where I have all the designs planned out.

Text conversation: Brittany Logano
Eliza: Hey girl, you ready to go?
Brittany: Absolutely girl.
Eliza: Awesome. I'll pick you up in a few.
Brittany: Perfect! See you in a little bit girl.
Eliza: See you in a bit.

I put on my shoes, grabbed my stuff, and said goodbye to Ryan as he handed me the keys to his rental and I was off to pick up Brittany from their motorhome. Brittany hopped in the truck as we said bye to Joey. We made some small talk on the way to our destination just outside of Phoenix and finally arrived at my favorite store and clothing line in Goodyear, AZ...Wornstar. We walked into the shop as I greet the owners of the store and the clothing line and introduce them to Brittany as I told her to go ahead and walk around to see if she finds anything and if she does that I will buy it for her while I talk to the owners about my special order.

I head into their office with their head designer as we discuss the special gift that I am going to surprise Ryan, Joey, and Chase with for our photoshoot and also to have just because. I presented them my idea to order a jacket for each of us to have with a badass design idea consisting of our names and our car numbers in our main paint scheme colors. They immediately love the idea and agree to do it as they got the necessary details and order information and giving me an estimated delivery date of 2-3 weeks, which is perfect timing since it will arrive before we do the photoshoot. After the meeting, I came back out to the main part of the store to find Brittany with a couple of shirts and leggings, she asks me for my opinion, and my response was "girl that will definitely make Joey's jaw drop to the floor". I look around the store grabbing a few shirts, pants, a faux leather jacket that looks like a windbreaker, and leggings to add to my collection.

After checking out, we make a quick pit stop at a liquor store so that I can get a small bottle of vodka to fix myself a mixed drink and headed back to the track with an hour before qualifying. I said a quick see you later to Brittany and we went our separate ways for now. I arrived back at Ryan's motorhome where I found him preparing a quick lunch for us. He asked about how our shopping trip went, talked, and I showed him what I got from the store. After lunch, he went to change into his fire suit and we make our way to pit road for qualifying. During qualifying, I stuck around the No. 12 crew and I started to learn a lot more from them and also offering ideas on adjustments and pit strategies for tomorrow's race, but I mostly stayed out of the way for the most part to let them do their jobs.

After qualifying, we chilled out in the motorhome, which for us 'chilling out' consists of cuddling and making out, for a while before setting up to watch the race. A couple of hours later, Chase arrived with some pizza and beer for him and Ryan and not long after Joey, Brittany, and the kids arrive with plenty of snacks and drinks for the kids so we can watch the race together. After watching one hell of a race and the post-race broadcast, we decided to call it a day and get ready for a busy season finale of the 2022 season. We said goodbye to everyone, cleaned up the motorhome, changed into our pajamas, and went to bed in his arms.

The next day we woke up fairly early and change as we are meeting up with Joey to grab some breakfast and talk for a while. After breakfast, I headed back to our motorhome as Ryan and Joey have quite a number of media obligations to fulfill and that he will see me back at the motorhome when he is done. After about an hour later, he comes back as we grab a quick lunch and he changes into his fire suit while I change into my race day outfit consisting of a Ryan Blaney shirt, a maxi skirt, and a pair of high top sneakers with my hair in a high ponytail, natural makeup, and simple jewelry with the necklace Ryan gifted me. As race time is vastly approaching, we found Joey and Chase as we did our pre-race ritual and made it back to his car just in time for the pre-race ceremony. Throughout the pre-race ceremony, I stayed by his side and it took the both of us so much to resist the urge to kiss one another, but we are not coming out publicly yet because we plan to announce our relationship soon, which we are fine with but it is bound to come out soon.

Overall, the race was wild, to say the least. It ended up being a Penske sweep with Ryan winning one of the stages and Joey winning another stage and winning the race overall and gaining his second cup series championship. Unfortunately for Chase it didn't end up going his way the whole race, but one thing is for sure everyone gave it their all and left it all on the track. After the race, I am waiting for Ryan to come down pit road and do his post-race interviews while I occasionally watch Joey do his victory lap, his burnout, and celebrate with his team and his family and sure brought a smile to my face making me realize that everything that I have dreamed so much about finally came true in this short time because I got signed by a great team, reunited with my friends, won the Coca Cola 600, and most importantly gained the heart of my true love. After he is done with all of his post-race interviews, our eyes lock as I give him a small smile and slowly walk my way to him. Once I got close enough to him, he grabs me by the waist, pulled me close to him to make me wrap my arms around his neck and give me the biggest hug as he buries his face into the crook of my neck as we hold each other close and not caring who is seeing our moment and I certainly did not care that he is sweaty. We stay like this for a while as we are holding each other close while I am whispering sweet things to him and playing with his curls.

After I feel him relax, we pull away from our hug but with our arms still around each other as we see Chase approach us as he bro hugs Ryan and gives me a proper hug as we talk about the race and other things as well. We decided to head to victory lane to congratulate Joey and also see the trophy ceremony. We make it to the stage with time to spare before they present the trophy as Joey spots us and motions for us to come closer and get on stage to be a part of the ceremony. When he lifts the trophy in the air we all cheered for him and we could not feel any prouder than we are right now. After taking pictures with his family, the team, and sponsors, he motions for us to come closer so that we can take some pictures together with his trophy. After we are done taking pictures, we said goodbye and let Joey do his post-race media obligations and what every driver calls the "championship media tour" and left to our respective motorhomes to freshen up, pack, and get ready to head back home and let the off season begin. However, I definitely did not expect for one of my many dreams I have in the dark to come true when we get home.