- Team Penske finally moves to address Ryan Blaney’s pit crew issues.
- Experienced jackman from Logano’s 2024 Phoenix finale joins Blaney’s crew.
- The issue isn’t new. Blaney lost a race last year due to pit crew performance.
Ryan Blaney stood by his pit crew through a string of setbacks, saying, “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.”
Around the garage, though, veterans warned that short-term pain can snowball into a longer slide. Team Penske has now acted to steady the ship for a driver who lifted the Cup in 2023.
They have now decided to swap a pit crew member of the No. 12 team with Wood Brothers Racing’s No. 21 (Josh Berry’s) team. WBR has a technical alliance with Team Penske
New Jackman for the No. 12 and Ryan Blaney
Penske has made a mid-season switch on the No. 12 crew after a week of scrutiny over pit road form. This weekend, the team will come back to Kansas with a new jackman, Patrick Gray, an in-house option with experience. Gray opened the season on Josh Berry’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing entry, a Penske affiliate. He replaces Landon Honeycutt at WBR.
The change follows a run where the No. 12 crew has been under the microscope. Blaney sits second in the standings with one win, three top-five finishes, and six top-10s in eight races, yet the numbers on pit road have lagged.
Per NASCAR Insights, the No. 12 crew ranked 35th of 36 full-time entries in season-long metrics after last week’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Blaney finished second there but gave up 11 spots on pit road, with the crew ranking 30th on the day.
Across the first eight starts, the No. 12 has lost about 88 positions owing to the pit work handlings. Despite that drag, Ryan Blaney has still taken a win at Phoenix Raceway and posted top-three runs at Darlington Raceway and Bristol. The missing piece has been converting pace into more wins.
The 2023 champion stands 62 points behind Tyler Reddick, who leads the series with four wins. Blaney owns a series-high 81 stage points and the third-most laps led this season at 244, but pit road has been the stumbling block.
Loose wheels at Phoenix forced extra trips down pit road. Then at Darlington, more wheel issues cost track position. At Bristol, even with the No. 1 preferred pit box twice, Ryan Blaney entered pit road in second and came out outside the top five.
The difference has been a big one because the No. 12 runs with the front pack. When stops are measured against crews on the No. 20, No. 5, No. 54, and other front-running teams, any drop in speed and timing stands out.
Blaney paid the price because of the pit crew issue last year as well
The No. 12 group has wrestled with pit issues dating back to last season. In the spring 2025 race at Darlington, Ryan Blaney hit pit road with the lead on the money stop and exited fifth. That slow pit stop swing cost Blaney the win.
Following that race, Penske swapped the front tire changer, with Skip Flores out and Keon France in. But then again, somehow, in the offseason, the team added a new jackman, Landon Honeycutt.
According to Boosez Tatarovich, Honeycutt is new to the series, having made his Cup debut last season, with this year marking his first full-time campaign. Eight races in, he is out of the No. 12 role.
Meanwhile, Gray will step in with a track record of handling pressure. At the end of the 2024 season, during the championship race at Phoenix, he filled in as jackman for Joey Logano’s No. 22 team, which went on to secure the title. Penske has now decided to lean on that experience as it looks to halt the slide on pit road.
Why does the move matter?
Within Penske, the No. 12 has been the benchmark on track. Ryan Blaney has set the pace for the group, outpacing teammates Austin Cindric and Logano on a weekly basis. The car has been in the hunt; it’s just the pit stops that have not kept up with his speed. At some point, the team had to act.
The jackman sits at the center of a stop as the role calls for lifting the car, setting tires, and syncing with the changers so the drop comes the instant the work is done. When the jack drops, the driver launches, whether the lug nuts are tight or not. That’s why timing and coordination are everything.
Definitely, a mid-season swap can disrupt rhythm and chemistry. But the call was made with the bigger picture in mind. This is a results-driven business. Crews are expected to handle pressure and deliver.
A pit unit cannot run 20th in speed and 30th in execution and expect the status quo to hold. A net loss of 88 positions across eight races is a red flag for a team with title ambitions. Penske has finally rolled the dice to fix it, banking that the change will pay off before the season reaches its tipping point.
