Team Penske changes Ryan Blaney pit crew

Ryan Blaney has been getting more and more angry with the No. 12 Team Penske Ford crews mistake on pit road and slow stops in the past few weeks. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler has also been pretty honest about the problems and the need to get better.

He had to deal with a lot of problems on pit road during the Phoenix race even though he won. The same thing happened last weekend when he finished second at Bristol. He is now in second place in the championship standings.

The team has decided to move rookie Cup Series jackman Landon Honeycutt to the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford of Josh Berry. This is a team that works closely with Penske on technical issues. They plan to switch him with No. 21 jackman Patrick Gray. He is best known for jumping in the middle of the race for the No. 22 team at the Phoenix finale in 2024 which helped Joey Logano win his third Cup Series title.

But the plan changed in the hours since this story was published. Motorsport.com writer Bozi Tatarevic says that Gray won't be able to race this weekend so a different plan has been made. Instead Blaney will get jackman Graham Stoddard from Noah Gragson's No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford for this weekend in Kansas.

Blaney has dropped 88 spots on pit road in the first eight races of the 2026 NASCAR Cup season and his crew is one of the worst in the series. Their average time in the pit is more than 2.5 seconds slower than the average for the rest of the field.