After eight weeks of struggling on pit road and reportedly tumbling to 35th on the 36-team pit crew rankings, Team Penske has made a change to Ryan Blaney's crew.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- After eight weeks of struggling on pit road and reportedly tumbling to 35th on the 36-team pit crew rankings, Team Penske has made a change to Ryan Blaney's crew.
© Mark J. Rebilas | 2026 Feb 15 The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion will get Patrick Gray as his jackman, beginning this Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Gray comes to Blaney's No. 12 Team Penske team from quasi-teammate Josh Berry's No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team.
In exchange, Landon Honeycutt will move from being the jackman for Blaney's No. 12 team to being the jackman for Berry's No. 21 Ford, beginning this Sunday at Kansas.
Blaney's No. 12 Ford has consistently been one of the fastest cars week-in-and-week-out in the Cup Series. While he has won this season and sits second in points, within 62 points of the lead, he could be leading the points if it hadn't been for multiple races, like Phoenix, Darlington and Circuit of the Americas, where his crew cost him spots.
On the other hand, Berry has had trouble getting any momentum going at all. In the seven races since finishing ninth in the season-opening Daytona 500, Berry has had five finishes of 26th or worse, including, deceivingly, at Bristol.
At Bristol, crew chief Miles Stanley kept Berry out on older tires before the end of the first stage. The call paid off as Berry placed fifth and picked up six stage points, then placed sixth in stage two and picked up five more stage points.
Despite finishing 32nd after some late-race issues, Berry still picked up 16 points on the day and maintained 25th in points. While not an improvement, the stage points was a step-up from other poor results the team has had.
The No. 21 team isn't content, however. Berry will have Matt Swiderski as his crew chief, instead of Stanley, at Kansas. Swiderski comes to the No. 21 team after spending two seasons with Daniel Suarez at Trackhouse Racing. Before working with Suarez, Swiderski spent three seasons with Kaulig Racing's Cup program.
Swiderski has two wins as a Cup crew chief, in October of 2023 at the Charlotte Roval with A.J. Allmendinger and in February of 2024 at EchoPark Speedway at Atlanta with Suarez.
Team rosters at Kansas for Ryan Blaney and Josh Berry:
Ryan Blaney: Tire carrier Trevor Apsey, fueler Chris Conklin, jackman Patrick Gray, front changer Kelston France, rear changer Zachary Price.
Josh Berry: Tire carrier Mason R Flynt, fueler Christopher Webb, jackman Landon Honeycutt, front changer John P. Jones, rear changer Trevor White.