Pit Crew Report: Chicagoland
How the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing crew aided Chase Briscoe in his hunt for the win while Blaney's No. 12 crew sees an uptick in performance
Chase Briscoe and William Byron were in a close battle on track and that was mirrored on pit lane as the two pit crews ended up just a hundredth of a second apart at the conclusion of the eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew of Briscoe clocked an average pit stop time of 8.48 seconds while the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports pit crew of William Byron came in at 8.49 seconds. High tire wear meant that it was truly a pit-crew focused race and nine crews saw a sub-nine second average for the race.
The fastest: No. 19 Chase Briscoe crew
1. No. 19 - Joe Gibbs Racing - Chase Briscoe - 8.48s
2. No. 24 - Hendrick Motorsports - William Byron - 8.49s
3. No. 22 - Team Penske - Joey Logano - 8.65s
4. No. 2 - Team Penske - Austin Cindric - 8.65s
5. No. 54 - Joe Gibbs Racing - Ty Gibbs - 8.76s
6. No. 7 - Spire Motorsports - Daniel Suarez - 8.83s
7. No. 5 - Hendrick Motorsports - Kyle Larson - 8.83s
8. No. 48 - Hendrick Motorsports - Alex Bowman - 8.86s
9 . No. 17 - RFK Racing - Chris Buescher - 8.95s
No. 20 - Joe Gibbs Racing - Christopher Bell - 9.06s
That No. 19 pit crew of Briscoe consists of veterans and younger pit crew athletes with some having extensive experience here like fueler Matt Tyrrell, who has seen success at Chicagoland in the past, winning while fueling for the No. 18 Toyota of Kyle Busch in 2018. Sunday’s race was special for multiple crew members, including front changer AJ Rosini, who recorded his first win after being sidelined with a seizure in early 2025.
Rosini was originally part of the No. 11 pit crew of Denny Hamlin, but recovering from the seizure kept him away from the track so he had to work his way back slowly. While waiting for approval, he volunteered to spend time in other departments at Joe Gibbs Racing to learn more about the team. Once he was approved to return, he had to start back at the bottom. After returning to practice, his first few races back came on the development crew that is leased to Front Row Motorsports before he was placed on the No. 54 pit crew of Ty Gibbs late in 2025. During the winter, JGR shuffled some crews and he received a permanent spot on the No. 19 crew.
The No. 19 pit crew not only had the best pit-stop average but also had the fastest pit of the night, which was completed on Lap 168 of the race.
Speaking of substitute crew members, we saw an impressive performance from the No. 20 pit crew of Christopher Bell, which was able to make its way into the top at Chicagoland while working with substitute front-tire changer Michael Louria, who has replaced starter Blake Houston post-Pocono as Houston recovers from a right-hand injury. While this 10th-place rank is a bit out of range of the No. 20 team’s usual top-three pace, it shows they can adapt when dealing with a challenging situation.
The No. 23 pit crew also had a couple of substitutes as jackman Nathan Ricketts and rear changer Adam Hartman served the end of their two-race suspensions following Naval Base Coronado, but subs Noah Massey on jack and Dante Johnson at rear changer had a decent showing, leading the No. 23 crew to a 15th-place rank with a 9.18 second average four-tire change time.
Team Penske has struggled to get consistency from the No. 12 pit crew of Ryan Blaney and has made multiple changes since last season, but Chicagoland shows that the latest combination of crew members might be starting to find their groove. That No. 12 pit crew ranked 13th Sunday with a 9.12 second tire-change time and had a net gain of spots across the course of the race. This is a significant improvement from their season-long ranking which has been 20th or worse. They are still a bit of a way away from their teammates, which ranked third and fourth, but consistency is the first step toward becoming contenders when The Chase comes around.
EchoPark Speedway is likely to be a fuel-limited race, so the focus will be on the fuelers instead of the tire changes as we’re likely to see various combinations of four-tire, two-tire and fuel-only stops. This is likely to work in favor of the Team Penske pit crews as they are some of the best at engaging the car before it’s fully stopped, as well as running with the car as it departs. Nick Hensley, fueler for the No. 22 Ford of Joey Logano, is one of the most elite fuelers when it comes to this task which could spell success for that squad as they try to find their way back towards Chase contention.