Ryan Blaney has spent much of the 2026 season putting himself in position to fight for another NASCAR Cup Series championship. He’s done that while also dealing with a recurring problem. His No. 12 Team Penske Ford has had the speed to run near the front, but its pit crew has repeatedly given away track position. With the Chase now set to begin at Darlington Raceway next weekend, Team Penske has made a huge move to address it.
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“Team Penske confirms the pit crews for Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney will swap to begin the @NASCAR Cup Series Chase this weekend.” Zach Sturniolo from NASCAR.com reported on X.
The decision made on September 1 means Blaney will start the Chase with Austin Cindric’s pit crew, which ranked 10th among NASCAR’s 35 full-time Cup teams after the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway. Cindric will take over Blaney’s crew, which finished 32nd on the same list.
The bigger — and more concerning — number is 129. According to NASCAR Insights, Blaney’s pit crew cost him 129 positions on the racetrack during the regular season, the worst figure in the series. Carson Hocevar’s No. 77 Spire Motorsports crew ranked second-worst at 70, a 59-position gap. The number does not mean every lost position came from one slow stop, but it shows how much ground the No. 12 repeatedly surrendered.
Penske had already identified the problem months earlier. Through the first eight races, Blaney’s crew had lost 88 positions on pit road, 31 more than any other team. The No. 12 driver and his crew chief Jonathan Hassler discussed the issue with competition vice president Travis Geisler, and Penske responded before Kansas Speedway by moving Graham Stoddard onto the No. 12 crew as jackman. Landon Honeycutt moved to Josh Berry’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing entry.
The warning signs were even clearer in April. Blaney’s crew had the worst average four-tire stop in the Cup Series at 12.89 seconds, compared with Christopher Bell’s series-best 10.18 seconds. The No. 12 ranked 35th among 36 title-eligible teams for pit-road performance.
The race results showed what those numbers meant. At Phoenix Raceway, two pit-road problems, including a penalty for pitting outside his box, sent Blaney to the rear twice. At Darlington in March, a loose wheel forced him to use a teammate’s stall so it could be tightened. He recovered to finish third, Blaney’s best Cup result at the track at that point.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway offered another example. A slow stop put Blaney in a hole, but Hassler responded with a two-tire call late in the race to save the day. Blaney took the lead, led 115 of 301 laps and stayed in front for the final 63 green-flag laps to beat Bubba Wallace by 0.586 seconds. It was his third win of the season.
That recovery ability is exactly why the crew problem stands out. Blaney has not needed a rocketship to become a championship contender. He has already shown he can recover when pit road hurts him. The issue is how much easier his season could be if he did not have to keep recovering.
Penske Has Put Its Better Pit Crew Behind Its Best Championship Bet
Blaney’s regular-season numbers leave little doubt about where he stands. He finished with three wins, six top-five finishes, 17 top-10s, four poles and 828 laps led. NASCAR’s September 1 power rankings also placed him second in season-long speed.
Cindric, by comparison, enters as the No. 15 seed, 95 points behind Hamlin after the points reset. His crew ranked 10th, but Penske has now moved that group over to Blaney. That’s a pretty significant change for two drivers who both made the Chase, and it makes Penske’s priority clear.
Jourdan Osinskie will be Blaney’s jackman, with Andrew Lackey as the fueler, Justin Armwood as the front tire changer, Geoffrey Wall at the rear and Jesse Mills as the tire carrier. Cindric will have Graham Stoddard, Chris Conklin, Keiston France, Justin Fox and Trevor Apsey. In other words, Penske is moving an established crew rather than putting together a new one.
That could matter quite a bit under NASCAR’s 2026 Chase format. All 16 drivers stay in the fight for all 10 races, with no eliminations and no further points reset. Hamlin starts with 2,100 points and Blaney with 2,075, so every race matters. A few bad pit stops here and there could quietly turn into a lot of points over the course of the Chase.
That makes Darlington the first real test of Penske’s decision. Blaney already showed in the spring that the No. 12 can run well there despite pit-road trouble. He will now return with the crew that ranked 10th in the series instead of the one that ranked 32nd.
For months, Blaney proved he could win while working around one of the weakest pit crews in the Cup Series. Penske has finally removed that problem before the 10-race title fight begins. The question now is how much more dangerous the No. 12 can be when Ryan Blaney no longer has to spend so much of the race making up ground lost on pit road.