A NASCAR insider believes changes need to be made to Ryan Blaney’s pit crew after a couple of mistakes happened at Darlington on Sunday. On The Teardown podcast, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic has a message for NASCAR pit crew members who are looking for jobs.
“If you are a pit crew member looking for a job, reach out to Team Penske this week. They may have some openings; they might need some people,” Bianchi said. “That’s not good, man.
“…How does that happen? Happened twice in Phoenix, happened twice today? And then they had a litany of issues last year as well. It can’t happen.”
Bianchi went on to say that the adjustments Penske has made to Blaney’s pit crew aren’t working. He then added, “This has been a continual pattern for a long period of time, and why? It doesn’t seem to be happening with the other Penske cars. Why is it happening to the 12? That needs to be resolved.”
Ryan Blaney reacts to P3 finish at Darlington despite pit road issues
Ryan Blaney got off to a hot start, finishing third in Stage 1 at Darlington. During his pit stop, before the start of Stage 2, Blaney’s crew had an issue dealing with the left side, with Blaney having a loose lug nut. He was forced to pull into Penske teammate Austin Cindric’s box to get it fixed.
“Come on, guys. We gotta be cleaner than that. We just cannot do this,” Blaney said. “We’ve got to clean it up. We cannot afford to make mistakes like this.”
Because Blaney had a fast car, he finished third behind Brad Keselowski and winner Tyler Reddick. After the race, Blaney discussed overcoming the pit road issues.
I felt less at Phoenix. Yeah, solid car all day. I thought we had good speed. Especially long run speed. Yeah, just stuff we got to work on, pit road,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll get better at that, address the issues that we got, and go forward. But that’s really all we can do. Really proud of the 12 guys for bringing me a good car and getting it better all day and kind of adjusting to where we were in the pack.”