It ultimately didn’t factor into the finish on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway but Ryan Blaney continues to lose track position on practically every NASCAR Cup Series pit stop and the sample size is growing with every start.
Before Sunday, Blaney had lost 86 combined spots on pit road.
On Sunday, Blaney was the leader and poised to win the race until a late caution forced crew chief Jonathan Hassler into a no-win scenario -- pit from the lead and Ty Gibbs stays out or stay out and Ty Gibbs leads everyone down pit road with him.
The former happened and Gibbs held off Blaney and Larson to win his first career race at the highest level.
Blaney held the lead late, despite his pit stops, driving back to the front after losing track position every single-time he came down pit road. But his No. 12 car continues to be amongst the two fastest overall this season and is able to compensate for the struggles from the over-the-wall group.
After the race, Hassler said he’s supportive of the work from his guys.
“I think they did a great job,” Hassler told NASCAR.com. “We had a couple mistakes again, but they stuck with it. All of those guys are capable and we’ve stuck with them, and when everything was on the line the most, they followed through. The guys have a lot of potential. They have the ability. We’ve had some bumps in the road, some of which isn’t necessarily those guys or any one person; just kind of getting the whole group and the car and the team kind of in sync.”
Meanwhile, former No. 12 tire changer Ryan Flores conceded on his Stacking Pennies podcast with Corey Lajoie that the current pit crew’s confidence has to have taken a hit this winter and spring.
“Now look, they have zero confidence. They’re gonna have zero confidence,” Flores said on Stacking Pennies. “The one thing they did this week — yes, they lost a bunch of spots — but they kept them in the race. Look, it’s gotta get better. We can’t hide from it anymore, we can’t fluff it, it’s gotta get better. You cannot be continually 20th, 25th on speed on the day, especially in the first pit stall. They did everything they had to do to win the race, which at the end of the day, is what it’s about.
“You didn’t have loose wheels, you didn’t have penalties, you didn’t stick him 30th like a lot of teams did with, we saw a bunch of equipment interference calls, which is when there’s a car parked in front of you, and you roll your right front into their pit stall. We saw a lot of speeding penalties. If you bury yourself in 30th at Bristol, your day is done, you’re a lap down. They didn’t do that to him; they kept him in the top-10.”
Despite that, Flores also conceded that the status quo is not sustainable.
“But when you’re pitting from the lead, and you’re going out sixth, there’s got to be something that changes,” Flores said. “When I got pulled off of that car last year, we were way better than they are right now. At this race last year — this is the race I got replaced in last year — we were sixth overall on the day. … There comes a point where it’s ‘OK, we’ve given you guys enough runway. Something’s got to change.'”
