This weekend at Talladega, crew chief Jonathan Hassler is back home with his wife and newborn baby, and Ryan Blaney is racing. However, Hassler isn’t going to be completely hands-off for the NASCAR Cup Series race.
It feels like there have been a ton of babies born in the NASCAR world lately. Jonathan Hassler got in on the trend and is back in North Carolina while his team prepares in Talladega.
From the Team Penske command center in North Carolina, Hassler is going to assist as best as he can. Ryan Blaney will be with Tony Palmer and Travis Geisler, both men assisting with duties on the pit box.
“He was involved in everything [leading into Talladega] and he’s calling in for the race,” Blaney explained, via Kelly Crandall at Racer.com. “He’ll be in those guys’ ear, but he was involved in prep like normal. He’s just not here.”
Teams normally have a crew of people working back at the shop for race weekends. There they can access data and see things that might be missed at the track. Hassler will join that group and do his best to give his team the information they need.
Ryan Blaney is a three-time winner at Talladega, always doing it in dramatic fashion in a photo finish. This Sunday he is going to have to make his way up through the field. That isn’t too hard to manage on a superspeedway. However, starting back in P21, things will be more challenging.
While Blaney has the history at the track, does he have it in him this weekend? Winless on the season as he looks to defend his championship. Since the season began, Blaney has been consistent, that was until last week.
Ryan Blaney looking to get back on the right foot
On the season, Ryan Blaney has four top-5 finishes to his record. When the season began he had raw speed. Honestly, he was the only bright spot for Ford besides those pole awards. Three straight top-5 finishes were then followed by three mediocre finishes, P16, P12, P19.
Then we saw Blaney get back to one of his favorite tracks at Martinsville. That was a tough race where he had to go to a two-tire pit strategy just to get track position back. It worked out. But Texas…Texas is another thing entirely.
While Blaney was able to finish the race under his own power, his car was beat up. Texas gave him fits and that wreck from Ryan Preece late in the afternoon did not help him at all. P33 at Texas, a setback for sure.
Michael McDowell starts the race on the pole. Ryan Blaney’s teammate Joey Logano earned a top-10 position. These Team Penske and Penske-aligned cars are quick. Now Blaney and his team, with their crew chief in Charlotte, will have to unlock that speed in the race on Sunday.
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