Team Penske has made a long-threatened change to Ryan Blaney's pit crew ahead of this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, hoping a reshuffle can salvage what has been a frustrating opening to the 2023 champion's title defence.
According to a report from NASCAR.com, the organisation has swapped the jackman on Blaney's No. 12 Ford with the equivalent position on Josh Berry's No. 21. It is the most significant change the team has made to Blaney's over-the-wall group in more than a season, and it follows a string of pit-road errors that have cost the Kentuckian track position and, in at least two races, likely wins.
Blaney's 2026 campaign so far has been a story of fast cars and slow pit stops. The No. 12 has repeatedly shown top-five speed only to see gains erased by loose wheels, dropped tyres and slow service. At Martinsville and Richmond, both races that ordinarily favour Blaney's short-track craft, he left with mid-pack finishes after crew trouble.
The frustration has been palpable. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler has been candid all season about the team's need to clean up execution, and Blaney has acknowledged in post-race interviews that a crew change felt inevitable if results did not turn.
Kansas becomes the proving ground. The 1.5-mile oval typically features a healthy number of green-flag pit cycles, the kind of racing where a weak stop can wreck an entire strategy. If the revised crew can translate shop speed to track-day speed, Blaney has a history at the Heartland track that suggests a strong weekend is there for the taking.
The shuffle comes amid a broader debate about Penske's NASCAR form. Reigning 2025 Cup champion Joey Logano has started 2026 solidly enough, but neither Blaney nor rookie-year graduate Austin Cindric — who replaced Josh Berry in a mid-offseason reshuffle of sorts — has converted clear speed into victories.
Kansas also arrives in the middle of a wider NASCAR conversation about star power and viewership. Frontstretch and OutKick have separately raised red flags this week about the Cup Series' TV numbers, and rival teams such as 23XI Racing are attracting fresh sponsorship interest with their own streaking drivers. Sports Business Journal reported Rockstar is returning to NASCAR via 23XI, underscoring the commercial importance of being a team on the upswing.
For Penske, keeping Blaney at the sharp end of the championship picture is non-negotiable. He remains one of the most talented drivers in the garage, with a Daytona 500 to his name in 2023 as well as that year's Cup title. A strong Kansas weekend, underpinned by the new pit-crew dynamic, would go a long way to steadying the ship.
Practice and qualifying run Saturday, with the AdventHealth 400 kicking off Sunday at 3 p.m. ET. Kyle Busch, who has been publicly struggling for form with Richard Childress Racing, is also expected to test a new short-run balance; but the eyes of the paddock will be trained on pit road in the No. 12 stall, watching to see whether the change delivers the clean stops that have eluded the Ford team all spring.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/ryan-blaney-penske-pit-crew-change-kansas-2026). Visit for full coverage.*