Taylor Swift's Second Cousin Claims He Set Her Up with Travis Kelce

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are two peas in a pod these days -- but in terms of their initial coming-together ... her relative is now coming forward to claim he played matchmaker.

Danny Frye III -- who's a dirt track racer in Oklahoma -- did an interview this weekend where he revealed he's T-Swift's second cousin, and not just that ... but he's taking credit for setting up his uber-famous family member with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end.

Check it out ... in Danny's chat with FloRacing TV, he confirmed he and Taylor are, in fact, related by blood -- but he's not just some random distant relative ... according to him, they're somewhat close and grew up together.

More importantly, DF3 drops a bombshell ... saying he made a "love connection" between his cuzzo and TK -- although, he doesn't really get into the details much at all. Danny shows off a screengrab of him and TayTay at a Chiefs game ... so he's not totally BS'ing.

It's interesting this is coming out now -- 'cause back in November, Travis spilled the beans on how exactly he and Taylor got hooked up ... saying someone in her world played Cupid, and strongly suggested it might have been someone in her own brood who knew who he was.

Some suspected her brother, Austin, might've been responsible -- but now, Danny here is saying he's the reason we have one of the biggest, most famous couples in recent memory.

Again, no deets on how exactly it all unfolded -- but it ain't hard to piece together. Presumably, Danny heard Travis' Taylor story on his pod, and relayed the message.