Ryan Blaney crew chief defends pit crew after disappointing Darlington finish

With a few laps to go in the Goodyear 400, Ryan Blaney made a pass for the lead. Then, the caution came out from a Kyle Larson wreck. Larson was 170+ laps down at the time, and his second wreck of the day put this race in the hands of the pit crews.

Unfortunately for Ryan Blaney, his pit crew couldn’t get the job done. They weren’t able to make that clutch pit stop that put them out in front of the field on the overtime restart.

Instead, Denny Hamlin and William Byron restarted on the front row. Hamlin ran away with the win in that two-lap dash.

Following the race, crew chief Jonathan Hassler explained what happened on the last pit stop. Ryan Blaney has relied on his pit crew before to win races, but this time they fell just a little bit short.

“The group’s perfectly capable,” Hassler explained, via Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut. “We’ve just got to clean it up, and we’ll be there, hopefully, sooner rather than later.”

Weaver asked Hassler about the strategy they used. Ryan Blaney, like he has in other races, was seemingly the only driver capable of racing through traffic and dirty air. That is why he was in a position to win in the first place.

“Yeah, I mean, I think that was really kind of our only play from where we were running to maybe have a shot to win or a good finish,” Blaney’s crew chief explained. “We weren’t going to pit early when those other guys pitted and get to the lead. So, we just kind of chose to do something different, and it worked out.”

While the final stop was clean, there were mistakes on pit road. Hassler could think of one off the top of his head postrace.

“I think so, and if you look they definitely had one mistake with the jack that cost us a lot of time,” Hassler continued. “Our last stop was clean. A 9.3, I think, but guys were running low 8s. The 24 I think we matched his time there on the last stop, but in pit stall one, you just have that advantage. So, you know, I think it’s like anything else in the sport. Just takes a little bit of change to go a long way and I think we’ll be able to recover from this.”

Briefly, it looked like everything was lining up. Ryan Blaney was going to get his revenge on Tyler Reddick for Homestead last fall. Make a late pass and run away with the lead. It wouldn’t be as good as a last-lap pass, but it would have felt good.

Instead, Blaney walks away with a good finish of P5 and 43 points to go with it. I think this is a good step in the right direction. At least his engine held up the entire race.