At the NASCAR Cup Series‘ Gateway race in June, Ryan Blaney‘s crew chief Jonathan Hassler decided to gamble on fuel, a move that nearly paid off until he ran out on the final lap. A month later at Pocono Raceway, Hassler tried to roll the dice again. While he had the benefit of cautions to alleviate the risk, Hassler’s call paid off this time as Blaney led the final 44 laps to win the Great American Getaway 400.
After running in the top ten for most of the day, Blaney assumed the lead for the restart with 44 laps remaining. The fuel window at Pocono is six laps fewer, meaning Blaney likely would have needed to pit again at some point.
Those fears were quicky eased when Corey LaJoie clipped Kyle Busch and sparked a pile-up moments later, Zane Smith and John Hunter Nemechek wrecked together on Lap 128, and pole winner Ty Gibbs‘ car leaked fluid onto the track on Lap 134.
Three cautions within 15 laps drastically slowed the race down, meaning Blaney did not have to push his car and use up fuel during that stretch.
“When we first pitted, we were probably three laps short of making it, but haven’t seen that in the past,” said Hassler.
“You certainly have to jump on that opportunity because if you don’t jump on it first, you’re not going to put yourself in any kind of position to win. We were really fortunate that those cautions came out really to start that run. After the three cautions I think it was, we were in really good position and could run hard the rest of the race.”
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The final 33 laps ran entirely under green and well within the fuel window, meaning all he had to do was keep last week’s winner Alex Bowman at bay. Denny Hamlin caught up to Bowman and battled with him for second, which allowed Blaney to pull away for his second win of 2024.
After his Gateway gamble blew up in his face, Hassler admitted he was “more nervous today” about his risk taking failing again. As such, he was more than relieved to see Blaney actually reach the finish with more than enough gas in the tank.
“We try to learn from each and every opportunity that we have,” Hassler continued. “That was just an opportunity for us to learn, a situation we could learn from and try to improve on.
“We made some adjustments to our process since then. Certainly was a little more nervous than I was at Gateway. Like I said, our guys kind of learned from that moment. We’ve continued to move forward.”
Penske on a hot summer streak
Ford had a disastrous start to 2024 when the marque failed to win in any of NASCAR’s three national divisions for the first three months. Since summer began, however, the Blue Oval has found its stride thanks to Blaney and his Team Penske colleagues, the trio combining to win four of the last seven races.
Blaney‘s misfortune at Gateway to start the month was team-mate Austin Cindric‘s salvation as he inherited the lead to win for the first time since 2021. Two races later, Blaney finally slayed his demons to win the inaugural Cup Series race at Iowa.
Joey Logano then contributed a victory at Nashville. Blaney’s two wins have helped him insert himself into the title conversation as he now sits seventh in points, previously being 12th at the end of May, with top-ten finishes in all but two races over the summer.
“I feel like the last two months we’ve been spectacular,” began Blaney. “Speed in our cars has been great. A couple finishes might not reflect that. It’s really none of our doing. Gateway we had a great shot to win, didn’t really work out.
“New Hampshire, had a great run, got spun out. I am really feeling good about the speed in our cars right now across the board at Team Penske. I feel like we’ve found a lot of stuff.”
Although Logano and Cindric have struggled points-wise, respectively ranking 14th and 19th, their race wins assure them of spots in the playoffs so long that they complete all 26 regular season events. Harrison Burton of Penske ally Wood Brothers Racing—set to be replaced by Josh Berry at season’s end—is 33rd in points and needs to gain three more positions in order to qualify, even if he wins.
“It’s nice to get everybody locked in,” Blaney continued. “With Austin’s win at Gateway, him being a good ways below the cutoff line, that was a huge day for those two boys. With Joey flirting with the cut line, doing what he did at Nashville was huge for that team. It just takes a lot of pressure off the whole organization’s shoulders when you get all three cars locked in. Hopefully we can get the #21 car (Burton) in at some point here before the playoffs and have everybody in.
“It’s just neat. It’s a lot of comfort knowing you all have an end goal and focus for the final ten weeks while also trying to stack up wins as you can in these final five races. It was cool to do it today.”
