Team Penske has made a bold call before the NASCAR Cup Series Chase even begins, and Austin Cindric appears to be the one paying the price.
Penske has announced that it swapped the entire pit crews of Cindric’s No.2 Ford and Ryan Blaney’s No.12 ahead of Sunday’s Chase opener at Darlington Raceway.
On paper, the reason is obvious.
Blaney enters the Chase as the No.2 seed, just 25 points behind Denny Hamlin. Cindric is 15th, 95 points behind the leader. More importantly, Blaney’s original crew ranked 32nd out of 35 full-time teams, while Cindric’s crew ranked 10th.
So the team has now given the better-performing crew to its higher-ranked championship contender.
That looks like a gamble on Blaney. But it also raises an uncomfortable question: Did Penske just sacrifice Cindric?
Cindric Gets the Short End of the Stick
The numbers make the decision difficult to criticize from Penske’s perspective.
Blaney’s crew had cost him a series-worst 129 track positions during the regular season. The next-worst deficit was 70 positions for Carson Hocevar’s crew. Penske had already tried changing Blaney’s crew earlier this year, but the problems continued.
Now, just before the championship begins, Penske has gone all the way.
Cindric’s 10th-ranked crew moves to Blaney and he inherits the 32nd-ranked group.
The reasoning from Penske is easy to understand. Blaney is much closer to the championship lead, has three wins this season and has been one of the strongest drivers heading into the Chase. NASCAR.com’s power rankings placed him second behind Hamlin.
Penske is trying to fix one of Blaney’s biggest weaknesses at exactly the moment when every position matters.
Is Penske Making the Right Gamble on Ryan Blaney?
Austin Cindric may be 15th in the Chase standings, but that does not mean his championship hopes are over. He’s still one of the 16 drivers fighting for the 2026 Cup Series title, and with 10 races remaining, he has a legitimate chance to make up ground, win races and contend for the championship.
And there is another problem waiting for Blaney.
He admitted that Team Penske still needs to find speed at the mile-and-a-half tracks, where Toyota has been stronger.
“I wouldn’t say I’m sitting here actively worried about any racetracks. I think it’s not a secret of the mile-and-a-half program. The Toyotas have been the best. And we’ve been searching for a little speed on those mile-and-a-halves. And there are… three or four of them in the Chase that you’re going to have to run well at to stay in contention. So that’s a part we’ve been working really hard on, ” he said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
He added: “So, I would say just looking at those types of tracks, the intermediates of where we have not been as fast as we want to be, is kind of the main point of focus for our group.”
If Blaney goes deep into the Chase and fights for the championship, Penske’s gamble will look brilliant. But if Cindric suddenly becomes a title threat while Blaney struggles, the pit crew swap could become one of the most controversial decisions of the playoffs.
Also Read:: Is Denny Hamlin Really the Driver to Beat For the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Title?
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