Ever since the next-gen car debuted in NASCAR, Team Penske has dominated the Cup Series. First, Joey Logano won the 2022 championship, soon followed by Ryan Blaney winning the 2023 title. As of now, Joey Logano is already locked in the championship 4 after his recent Las Vegas win, which saw the Penske #22 Team execute their fuel mileage strategy to perfection.

However, after a close miss at Homestead Miami, Ryan Blaney is still struggling to double Penske’s championship chances as he eyes back-to-back titles. Currently, the #12 is in the elimination zone with -38 points below the cutline, and pointing his way in is going to be an uphill battle. However, luckily Martinsville has been a Blaney stronghold, and crew chief Jonathan Hassler has a pretty sorted game plan.

What are Ryan Blaney’s chances to make it to Phoenix?

Nearing the end of the Homestead race, it looked like a #12 victory, however, trailing regular season champion isn’t one to give up. On the final turn, Blaney dropped to the middle, providing Tyler Reddick the opportunity to take the outside line and drive from the outside of Blaney to take the lead. And that’s exactly what Reddick did, taking the lead, the checkered flag, and his first-ever spot in the championship 4. Naturally, Blaney was disappointed, but the #12 team isn’t one to grieve over a setback.

Post the race, Ryan Blaney opened up on his coping method, where he said, “I’ll be thinking through it all night, what I should have done different probably. That’s just the way it goes. Overall really proud of the effort. Hopefully, we can bring it to them next week. It will suck for the night, then we’ll look forward to Martinsville tomorrow morning. We try to forget things quick. I’ve tried to do that more and more as I’ve gotten older, move on to the next thing, good, bad or indifferent, focus on the task.”

Also recently, Blaney’s crew chief Jonathan Hassler echoed the same emotions as the defending champion, revealing the #12 teams’s bounce-back mantra after a disappointing day. Hassler said, “Yeah, fortunately, we race every Sunday. So you really get Monday, I think, a little bit of time on Monday to try and regroup, and definitely you gotta do that. You always gotta play those what-if scenarios because that’s what makes you better the next time. So we try to spend Monday, reviewing things, things we could do different, take some good notes, and first thing on Tuesday morning or Monday afternoon start looking ahead.”

This is perhaps the reason why they are so successful in such a short span. Even in the #12’s championship-winning season, they finished second in Homestead to Christopher Bell. There too, only two spots remained with a tight gap in points. The Blaney faction set its eyes on Martinsville and won the race, making their way into the championship 4. Hopefully, a repeat of that is what we will see this time, as Blaney has been the most consistent driver at Martinsville in recent times with an average finish of 6.0 since 2021, only second to his teammate Joey Logano (5.3)!

What are Ryan Blaney’s chances at Martinsville?

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Further in the conversation, Hassler dwelled on the team’s formula week in and week out. According to him, what sets them apart is that the same things apply to everyone, be it a mechanic or the crew chief. “In general I would say on the 12 team in general we try to have a pretty consistent process week in and week out. And that you know from top to bottom. From the mechanics and the guys building the cars to myself. You have a plan going on and understand what’s going to happen and as you see things happen, just respond according to how you prepared,” added Hassler.

The Hassler-Blaney pair has been working together since 2022. And Hassler has an impressive resume of working as a race engineer with former cup champions like Bobby Allison and Brad Keselowski. Hence, he was successful in building a championship-winning team and eye their second.

Even heading to Martinsville, Hassler is confident of their chances. Why wouldn’t he be? After all, Ryan Blaney has the best career average finish there among all active drivers. In the 17 races, he’s won once, has nine top 5s, eleven top 10s, and an average finish of 8.8. The only one close to him is Denny Hamlin, with an average finish of 10.2. While Blaney might be the most consistent, Denny Hamlin is the winningest active driver on the track, having won 5 times in his career. The #12 will have to be wary of the #11, as Hamlin, too, is desperate for a win to progress.

However, this won’t be the only thing the #12 Team has to worry about. NASCAR has introduced a new tire compound for the race. The left tire on the car will be the softest NASCAR has ever seen. Soft tires equal higher speed but also higher wear. The right tire will be the same ones that were used at Richmond, they too proved to have higher fall off, having teams be creative with their strategies. Martinsville will be no different and the #12 team is prepared for it.

Hassler spoke on what they expect from the new tire compound at Martinsville. He said, “Martinsville is going to be little bit different for sure, some unknown with this tire maybe a little bit of fall off. You will definitely see rubber go down on track and I think the track will probably progress throughout the race, rubbering up and then the rubber peeling up. Definitely be a little bit different.”

Overall Blaney has a strong chance of winning the shortest track of NASCAR. Do you think he will join his teammate at Phoenix? share your thoughts with us in the comments below.