- Despite recent setbacks, Ryan Blaney stands by his pit crew.
- No. 12 pit crew ranks among Cup Series’ poorest performers.
- Blaney and his team aren’t planning any pit crew changes.
For all the ground Ryan Blaney has covered this season, his march has hit a roadblock on pit road.
Through seven starts, the Team Penske driver has one win, two top-five finishes, and five top-10s, yet his shot at better results has been undercut by execution errors from the No. 12 crew, even as his No. 12 Ford has shown pace on track.
The stats show in the numbers, with the team posting a four-tire pit stop average of 12.89 seconds, the lowest in the series.
FOX broadcaster Mike Joy also noted that the No. 12 Team Penske crew stood 33rd out of 36 full-time teams at that stage of the season.
Ryan Blaney defends his pit crew despite their multiple mishaps
Despite everything, Blaney has not thrown his crew under the bus. The group is still finding its feet with new faces in the mix, and the driver has chosen to stand by them, even though he did get angry following the Darlington race.
Both Phoenix and Darlington nearly slipped through his fingers due to pit road issues. While he still took the win at Phoenix and came home in the top three at Darlington, the setbacks drew a reaction in the heat of the moment.
Yet, after the last Cup race at Martinsville, Blaney struck a different tone. Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR, he said,
“I thought those guys put together a really good day at Martinsville. You know, really didn’t have any mistakes. So they bonded together, you’re right. It’s kind of been a big talk [talking point] of you know, our loose wheel problems and stuff like that, but I think we just go through this, right? We have a new Jackman, and it takes a little bit of time to create that bond with everybody and create that rhythm and timing.”
“So they’re working on the brink of perfection, and, you know, they might just make a mistake every now and then, but I was proud of them for understanding, ‘Hey, we have to get better here,’ and just continuing to work,” he added.
Blaney made it clear he is not losing faith, pointing to the group’s upside and stressing that it is a matter of ironing out the kinks. The team, he said, is focused on sticking to its process, tightening the screws and turning potential into results, with the belief that it can rise among the crews on pit road.
Darlington and Phoenix races almost laid bare the cost of errors
At Darlington, running near the front, Blaney was hit with a loose lug nut on the left rear during a stop, forcing an unscheduled visit early in Stage 2.
He pulled into teammate Austin Cindric’s pit stall for a quick fix, but NASCAR sent him to the rear for the move. In one stroke, he dropped from third to 20th, losing a lot of track position.
He clawed his way back through the field and still finished inside the top five, but not before voicing his frustration. “Come on, guys. We gotta be cleaner than that. We just cannot do this. We’ve got to clean it up. We cannot afford to make mistakes like this,” he said.
The trouble did not start there. At Phoenix, Blaney dodged a bigger setback after a pit road miscue forced a second stop to secure a loose tire. The issue cropped up midway through Stage 2 while he was running second.
A vibration from the left-side tire forced him back down pit road. The wheel stayed on, sparing the team a harsher penalty, but the extra stop sent him from second to 24th.
He worked his way back to ninth before a caution flew after Chase Briscoe hit the wall. Under yellow, another loose wheel cropped up, forcing Blaney to stop in Joey Logano’s stall to tighten it. That brought another penalty for pitting outside his box, sending him to the rear once more.
At Martinsville, however, the team kept it together, avoiding mistakes and bringing home another top-10 finish.
