Entering the Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship and its first of 10 races at Darlington Raceway, Team Penske made headlines by electing to swap the pit crews of Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney.
Blaney, the No. 2 seed in The Chase, had been struggling with his five-man pit crew throughout the entirety of the regular season, with the team experiencing a number of slow pit stops, mistakes, and even penalties, all of which would cost the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion handfuls of positions on-track – leading to a loss of points.
The No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse had the 32nd-best pit crew (out of 35) in Cup.
Cindric, on the other hand, was able to squeak into The Chase with the No. 15 seed. However, the pit crew on the No. 2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse was leaps and bounds better, and after the regular season was ranking inside the top 10, in 10th.
With Blaney arguably having a better shot at winning the NASCAR Cup Series title for Team Penske, as the second seed and the closest competition to Denny Hamlin and Toyota Racing USA, giving the better crew to the No. 12 made sense, and Cindric even agreed to an extent.
Though, when the dust settled in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, the crew swap seemingly ended up being advantageous for both Blaney and Cindric, who spent most of their nights inside the top-10, and were among some of the best crews on pit road.
In fact, according to Bozi Tatarevic, who compiles NASCAR National Series pit road statistics based on information scraped from NASCAR’s Timing and Scoring system, both Cindric and Blaney had an average four-time pit stop time of under nine seconds, which ranks them inside the top nine for Sunday’s event.
Austin Cindric’s brand-new crew (that came from the No. 12) had the sixth-fastest four-tire stop average of the night at 8.95 seconds, while Blaney’s crew (that came from the No. 2) had the ninth-fastest four-tire stop average at 8.98 seconds.
Chase Briscoe and Joe Gibbs Racing had the fastest four-tire stop average of the Southern 500 at 8.48 seconds.
PHOTO: John K Harrelson, NKP for Ford Racing
