After a subpar start to the season for Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske pit crew, where the team has netted 88 lost positions on pit road through the opening eight races of the season, the team is making a change heading into Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Team Penske will perform a crew member swap with Wood Brothers Racing, which will send Landon Honeycutt, who has served as Blaney’s jack man this season, to Josh Berry’s No. 21 pit crew. Pat Gray, who has served as the jack man for the No. 21 team this season, will now pit for Blaney and the No. 12 Team Penske group.
If Gray’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was a key component in Joey Logano’s 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Logano’s primary jack man, Graham Stoddard, was injured during the championship race at Phoenix Raceway, which left Team Penske scrambling to find a replacement that could keep Logano in the championship fight.
Gray, who was pitting the No. 2 Team Penske car, driven by Austin Cindric, on that afternoon, got the call to swap over to the No. 22 Ford. The rest is history. Gray clicked perfectly with the No. 22 team for the remainder of the race, and Logano would go on to score his third NASCAR Cup Series championship.
The 88 net lost positions on pit road this season by the No. 12 team are the most of any team in the series, according to Racing Insights, and the margin isn’t particularly close. Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing pit crew is next on the list with 57 net positions lost on pit road this season.
It remains to be seen if Gray will be the magic cure-all for what has ailed the No. 12 Team Penske group this season, but knowing his past heroics in a big-race moment like the 2024 Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, it feels like the move is a good one on the surface. It’ll all be about how well Gray can gel with the remainder of the existing No. 12 Team Penske pit crew.
