NASCAR star Ryan Blaney admits Team Penske must work on major issue

An ugly issue reared its head once again for Team Penske at Darlington on Sunday, and Ryan Blaney has admitted it's something that the team must work on.

Come the end of the NASCAR Cup Series race in South Carolina, it was all smiles for the driver of the No. 12 Ford, finishing third and putting a decent chunk of points on the board. However, earlier in the race, there were yet more issues on pit road for Blaney and his team.

At one stage, Blaney came in for a change of tires and fuel, but when doing so, his team had failed to adequately tighten the lug nut on one of his wheels.

Fortunately, Blaney noticed this issue as he was pulling away, but he was forced to stop in teammate Austin Cindric's pit box as a result, and for that, NASCAR penalized him and sent him to the rear of the field.

The issue is a part of a wider problem with the No. 12 crew at Team Penske so far this season, with FOX broadcaster Mike Joy revealing that they rank 33rd out of the 36 full-time crews so far in 2026.

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Ryan Blaney on Team Penske pit road issues

Speaking after the race via Ford PR, Blaney revealed just how hard it was to overcome his issue on pit road and secure such a strong finish.

“Really challenging," Blaney said at Darlington. "Having that deal after the first stage and then honestly didn’t really have good stops the rest of the day, so that’s something we’ve got to work on.

"But we had a fast enough car to get back to third. I’m proud of that effort. We’ll take it and move on, but definitely stuff to work on.”

Blaney again echoed that sentiment later, adding: "It’s something we’ve got to work on.”

Blaney on Darlington result

On a more upbeat note, Blaney was far more positive about the speed in his No. 12 Ford when speaking to FOX post-race.

"Good showing. A lot of fun today sliding around," he said. "I thought the package was really fun.

"You could kind of make it angry, and you were going to pay the price, and that stuff is pretty good.

"I think it was the first time in my Cup career that I have let guys go on a restart or on a green flag cycle, and I said to myself, I’m going to see you in about 20. That happened multiple times.

"I think we’re making progress on that, so we’ll keep going. Like I said, proud of the fight by the #12 guys."