What separates a midpack team from a championship contender? In the Next Gen, the answer is pretty simple: your pit crew needs to be on their toes. One bad call or a fumble is all it takes to ruin a championship. And right now, it looks like Ryan Blaney is in a tricky situation with his team, and issues on the pit road have become so evident that even Kevin Harvick is calling them out.

“Everything’s gonna be fine. And obviously they know that they have a good pit crew, but hasn’t been great,” said Harvick. “You know, from a speed start, speed point on pit road this year, their ranking has been awful, but they didn’t, they didn’t look like that team on Sunday.”

Stats certainly back Harvick’s statement. Blaney’s pit crew ranks 35th out of 36 teams in four-tire stop times in 2026, with an average of 12.89 seconds, far behind top-performing crews like Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.

This palpable talent difference between crews was also noticed by Harvick, who bluntly stated, “I still think the problem that they have is they’re just not as good as the Hendrick and the Gibbs pit crews.” Despite the clear issues, Blaney and his team are still putting their faith in the team, and didn’t make changes.

Jackman Landon Honeycutt has been at the forefront of the No. 12 team’s woes. Speaking about his jackman, Blaney said, “I’m not going to call out Landon. I think there’s been some other things that have contributed to maybe it looking like he’s struggled a little bit. He is green and he is a little new so there are some things he’s got to clean up.” If you think these issues won’t creep into Blaney’s title run, think twice, or maybe look at the examples at when titles were lost on the pit road.

Remember the 2019 Miami Homestead finale? Martin Truex Jr. was in the hunt for the championship, but his crew made a big mistake. The right side tires and the left side tires were mixed up, and they weren’t able to climb out of that hole. Kyle Busch won the title instead. JGR crew were off that day as Hamlin’s crew also shot themselves in the foot after putting on a tape on grille that caused the engine to overheat.

Heck, last year, a four-tire call kept Hamlin from winning his first NASCAR championship. These examples only explain the importance of a pit crew in deciding the NASCAR champion. And right now, the #12 team needs to weed out a lot of mistakes before they head into the business end of the season.

The critical role of pit crew performance in NASCAR’s evolving championship race

Faster crews have always helped achieve better finishes. It was Hendrick Motorsports who pioneered modern pit crew training with Andy Papathanassiou in the early 90s. His efforts helped reduce four‑tire stop times from 18–19 seconds in the late 1990s to elite sub-14 performances.

In the 2024 Texas Motor Speedway race weekend, for example, Hendrick crews averaged 9.27- second four‑tire pit stops against Penske crews, who averaged 9.57 seconds, a whole 0.3-second performance gap with the second-best crew.

The value of quick pit stops has further increased with the new rules, where a race win has gone from 40 to 55 points, making it important for pit crews to cut down on time in the pits. No race can be taken lightly under the Chase Format. They will have to continue repeating their exploits from Martinsville, as that is the only way they can help Blaney get close to the title.