Imago
Credits: Imago
Imago
Credits: Imago
At Bristol Motor Speedway in April 2026, the gap between winning and losing came down to just 0.055 seconds. Ryan Blaney was textbook all race; he started from pole, led 190 laps, and had the pace to take the win home. But instead Ty Gibbs raced through the checkered flag. And this happened not because of an error Blaney did, but because Blaney’s own pit crew turned out to be the Achilles heel.
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During a late caution with 24 laps remaining, crew chief Jonathan Hassler made the standard call for four tires, expecting a clean stop. Instead, it caused Blaney to drop down to seventh for the restart. While the racer did go back to the front, it was not enough, evident in the team’s result and also Blaney’s frustration post-race. The good thing is, when you have the golden goose of the franchise wanting a change before it is too late, you bet that the bosses are listening.
Days after, the #12 complained of his predicament (which we’ll get to later). Roger Penske obliged with swooping changes. The team started by exchanging their jackmen, Landon Honeycutt and Wood Brothers Racing, which runs the No. 21 car for Josh Berry. But as you might have guessed, that’s not all.
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Coming the other way is Patrick Gray, a veteran jackman. As far as Blaney is concerned, he lost his patience after Bristol too.
Ryan Blaney team changes jackman, swapping with Josh Berry crew. Patrick Gray goes to Blaney; Landon Honeycutt goes to Berry. … Gray is a veteran (he jumped in on the Logano car midrace at Phoenix in 2024) and Honeycutt is relatively new. @NASCARONFOX
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 16, 2026
“We’ve got to get it better,” Blaney said. “If we’re going to keep competing and get cars that can win races and stuff, we’ve got to clean that up.”
What’s surprising is that this call-out from him didn’t come any sooner. Because through the first eight races of the 2026 season, the No. 12 team lost 88 positions on the pit road, which is the worst figure in the Cup Series. For context, Ross Chastain’s no. 1 team sat next on that list, and even they lost 57. Their crew ranks 33rd out of 36 full-time teams. The previous losses have been just as painful.
At Darlington Raceway, a loose lug cut and penalty dropped Blaney from third to 20th in a single sequence. At Phoenix Raceway, a loose wheel forced extra stops that sent him from second back into the pack. There have for sure been clean races too, but that’s an exception. This makes Patrick Gray’s arrival all the more important.
If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because during the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race, he had stepped in for Logano’s injured jackman and executed everything without mistakes amidst all that pressure. Penske isn’t, of course, expecting a dramatic turnaround, but they are for sure hoping to break the cycle of their driver losing important track position.
Former No. 12 crew member call out Team Penske
Meanwhile, former crew member Ryan “Skip” Flores mentioned publicly that the group has lost confidence compared to its earlier form. The former tire changer for No. 12, speaking at the Stacking Pennies podcast, said, “When I got pulled off the car last year, we were way better than they are right now. Something got to change.” Well, they finally did, and they best feel it’s not too late for that change. But for some, there are more pressing issues within the team.
, the root of the problem was not necessarily Honeycutt’s ability; it was timing and chemistry. The No. 12 pit crew had been stable since 2022, but a series of changes in quick succession disrupted that.
A tire changer swap at Darlington last spring, then Honeycutt replacing veteran jackman Jordan Osinski over the winter, left the crew in a position to rebuild chemistry at the worst possible time. “Anytime you swap a pit member, you create instability,” Tatarevic explained. “It takes time to rebuild.”
Despite all the setbacks, Blaney now sits second in the standings with one win and 324 points. But whether the crew can find its ground before the playoffs, or whether No. 12 can even make it to the playoffs in the first place, remains to be seen.
What do you think? Can a crew change change things for the better or complicate them further with all the team dynamics involved?
Written by
Edited by
Suyashdeep Sason