Blaney, Cindric react to crew swap before The Chase: ‘Best chance to win the championship’

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ryan Blaney will have a new pit crew on his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to begin NASCAR's postseason. Blaney inherits the crew that previously serviced Austin Cindric's No. 2 Ford through the regular season. Per NASCAR Insights, Cindric's crew ranked 10th-best through 26 races while Blaney's crew ranked 32nd. As Team Penske confirmed Tuesday, those teams will swap cars ahead of Sunday's opening race of The Chase presented by Mobil 1. MORE: Penske swaps pit crews before Chase | Chase standings The move immediately addresses the biggest flaw on Blaney's record this season. NASCAR Insights rates Blaney as the sport's No. 1 passer with the No. 2 ranked speed, sixth-best defense and 10th-best restarts. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion, Blaney enters The Chase as the No. 2 seed, 25 points behind top-seeded Denny Hamlin. "I firstly want to thank the guys who were with me all year," Blaney told reporters during Wednesday's Chase Media Day rounds. "They were with us through thick and thin. We had great times together, was able to win a few races. I appreciate the work that they did to get us where we're at. And then this decision, Team Penske just looked at it and they figured that this was, how can we change things up to where we think it will benefit the whole company? And this is what they decided. So, thankful for what my guys did. "Looking forward to working with the new team. Feel like they've been really solid on pit road all year, and a lot of those guys I've worked with in the past. A couple of them are new guys to me, but looking forward to it. I think it really speaks highly of Team Penske's depth of they can shift guys around and have them to be able to get plugged into other teams pretty seamlessly. So, looking forward to seeing how that goes." Cindric enters the postseason as the No. 15 seed in the 16-driver field and expressed that he was informed of the change by leadership earlier this week. While losing a crew that ranked inside the top 10 in the sport, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion said he fully understands the move and welcomes the new over-the-wall group to the No. 2 crew. "Just giving the team the best chance to win the championship," Cindric said. "I think that's fully understandable, and it's a pretty understandable motivation given the time of year. So yeah, I talked with leadership, and I've talked with Roger and understand why that was changed. And like I said, for us, it's business as usual, past having personnel changes and being able to welcome our new group in and be able to give them the best chance to succeed, but also for them to give us the best chance to succeed. I think those groups, those different divisions ... on a race team, they feed off of each other, and I think it's important to start that culture in the right way." A three-time winner in the Cup Series, Cindric takes pride in the relationships that he builds within his race team. That, he noted, was the most difficult part of accepting the team's decision to swap crews after the regular season's 26-race slate. "I think anyone that knows me, (knows) racing's all I do. It's all I care about, all I put my time and effort into," Cindric said. "So naturally, I'm pretty close with the guys that I work with. I'd say probably the main level of frustration is I don't get to see through the season with the guys that I feel like are responsible for me getting there. But at the same point in time, like, it's not completely unprecedented to make changes to give the team the best chance. And that's what the team thinks, and that's the way they decided. "As far as the guys that are coming on board the 2 car for the rest of the year, yeah, I mean there's several veteran guys, guys that I've won races with in (the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series), and I know most of these guys. I mean, I work out in the same gym and hang out, and so I'm not unfamiliar with anyone that's joining the team and looking forward to seeing what we can do for the next 10 weeks." [caption id="attachment_524461" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]Chris Graythen | Getty Images[/caption] Blaney, a 20-time Cup winner, has won three races this season despite a total of 129 net positions lost on pit road this season. Joining his crew are three very familiar faces: fueler Andrew Lackey, who worked with Blaney from his time in the Craftsman Truck Series through 2019; tire carrier Jesse Mills, who previously worked on the No. 12 car during the 2010s; and jackman Jourdan Osinskie, who was Blaney's jackman during the 2023 championship-winning campaign. Front changer Justin Armwood and rear changer Geoffrey Wall will work with Blaney for the first time throughout The Chase. "A few of them, I have a decent amount of experience with throughout my years, and then a couple of them it's nice to get to learn new guys, right?" Blaney said. "Just hear their personalities, where they came from, know how you got here, stuff like that, the great job that they do. So it's a nice group." Blaney said he did not specifically request a change despite the stats against his favor, noting the decision came from above him. "I'm not the decision-maker when it comes to pit-road guys," he added. "Really, the only thing I can do is be in those meetings with the people who have those powers: team leaders, crew chiefs, things like that. We all talk, you know, hey, where can we improve? But at the end of the day, it's not my call to say, 'hey, I want to change this guy or these groups of guys out.' That's out of my area of expertise. There's pit coaches and everyone who knows those guys better, work with those guys every single day. They're the ones making the calls. All I can do is give my opinions on a couple things when they are asked of me." The focus now sharpens on chasing a championship, a goal that hasn't wavered throughout the 2026 season. Entering The Chase as the second seed, Blaney was confident regardless of any pit-crew changes. "I felt very strongly about going into The Chase even before this because I think our team has done a good job of figuring out speed in the race car, figuring out how to get better on pit road, overcoming some times where we have adversity," Blaney said. "I felt great about it before everything, even Sunday, and I still feel really good about it as well." Cindric divides a Cup team into three groups: road crew, car performance and over-the-wall crew. He believes each department feeds off the others' energy and that the culture is embedded into his No. 2 team. So when it comes to welcoming jackman Graham Stoddard, fueler Chris Conklin, front changer Keiston France, rear changer Justin Fox and tire carrier Trevor Aspey, he knows it all comes back to the processes they feel will lead them to excel. "All those things factor into the people that you have on your team and how you want to go about leading them," Cindric said. "And I think when it comes to personnel changes, I mean, I think that's a lot more in (crew chief) Brian (Wilson)'s wheelhouse from that standpoint. But if I can be there and help drive that or direct that -- even something as simple as having to start a new group chat and sending a few memes to break the ice -- I think leadership in my role can be defined in so many different ways. So I go about it the way I want to, and I feel like I try and be as available as possible."