NASCAR’s Team Penske Responds to Pit Road Struggles with Major Crew Change

NASCAR’s Team Penske has made a significant change in the pit crew for Ryan Blaney, according to FOX NASCAR’s Bob Pockrass. Ahead of the Cup Series race at Talladega on 27 April, Penske has replaced Front Changer Skip Flores with Keiston France from Front Row Motorsports.

Front Row entered into a technical partnership with Penske ahead of the 2024 season, collaborating on several key areas, including race setup, pit crew development, engineering, and aerodynamics.

Team Penske has been struggling to ace its pit stops, and thus, the change comes as a measure to improve pit operations. Revealing on X, Pockrass confirmed the pit crew member replacement. He stated:

“Ryan Blaney crew has struggled so Penske makes change for Talladega: Keiston France in at front changer, replaces Skip Flores (who also co-hosts Stacking Pennies podcast). France was on Penske crew for Zane Smith. The 38 roster not filed yet so TBA if Flores there. @NASCARONFOX” [sic]

Hours later, Pockrass posted another tweet on X, confirming that Skip Flores has been moved to Front Row Motorsports as a Front Changer for Zane Smith, effective from the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega. He stated:

“Front Row Motorsports confirms that Skip Flores, formerly on the Ryan Blaney car, will be the front changer for Zane Smith starting at Talladega. Penske provides the pit crew for Smith and his former front changer Keiston France moves to Blaney’s car starting at Talladega.”

The big pit crew change comes amid FOX NASCAR commentator Kevin Harvick’s warning to teams like Penske, whose drivers lost positions due to pit stop challenges. One such example was from Darlington, where race leader Blaney was on his way to a victory until the caution flags came out towards the end of the race.

Blaney’s pit crew lost significant time due to an error, while Denny Hamlin’s crew capitalized on the situation and executed a flawless pit stop, helping Hamlin line up on the front row in the overtime restart. This helped Hamlin race to the victory, while Blaney finished fifth. Newsweek Sports reported Harvick’s recent comments asking teams to up their pit game. He said:

“This off week presents a scenario to where I think a lot of teams need to make some adjustments. I think this pit road thing with [Joe Gibbs Racing] and [Hendrick Motorsports] being above the rest in the pit road speed. RFK [Racing] is right in there, too.

“When you look at [Team Penske] and their pit road stuff and some of the other teams and their pit road issues, you got to make an adjustment. You can’t just keep getting beat like a drum on pit road because pit road is just such a factor. We saw the five (Kyle Larson) execute a race from start to finish, leading the race, no issues.”

Despite the crew member swap between Penske and Front Row, the effectiveness of the move can only be judged during the race at Talladega.