“From my perspective, it was definitely more exciting than it needed to be,” Jonathan Hassler, Crew Chief of Ryan Blaney ecstatic about the All-Star Race victory at Texas
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Jonathan Hassler(L) and Ryan Blaney(L)
Ryan Blaney who drives the No.12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske competing full-time in the Cup Series emerged victorious at the much-awaited NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway this week after a controversial ending to one of the iconic races of NASCAR history and Blaney’s crew chief, Jonathan Hassler was called up for a chat after the race.
He has been Blaney’s crew chief for the 2022 season and he previously worked as the same for the Wood Brothers Racing’s No.21 with Matt DiBenedetto as the driver. Hassler worked as a race engineer for Team Penske before taking up the role of crew chief, after Blaney’s then crew chief, Paul Wolfe got suspended for a loose wheel.
Hassler has been a crew chief for 22 races so far, switching up from being a race engineer and he seems to have not disappointed the team, under his 22 races as a crew chief, the drivers managed to get two top5s and seven top10 finishes so far which is pretty strong evidence supporting his set of skills he brings to the table as a crew chief.
“It’s a difficult situation for everybody. I’m not going to lay any blame,” says Jonathan Hassler when asked about the race ending
Hassler was questioned about the debatable finish and about his thoughts on it and he answered by saying that from his point of view it was a thrilling experience and when he looked into the replay, it was the checkered flag waving above but soon it changed as the yellow flag was waved right before Blaney passed the finish line.
“From my perspective, it was definitely more exciting than it needed to be, obviously when I watched a little bit of the replay, I saw the checkered flag waving as Ryan was driving to it. Obviously, the yellow lights came on and the flagman reached back and grabbed for the flag,” said Jonathan Hassler.
He further added by saying that it was a confusing and dreadful scenario for everyone and he admits to not holding anyone accountable for it and is just glad to have done what was required to attain the victory.
“It’s a difficult situation for everybody. I’m not going to lay any blame. Fortunate we were able to do what we needed to do to get the win,” said Jonathan Hassler.
“I’m just thankful we were able to do that and bring the win home,” says Jonathan Hassler when questioned about Ryan Blaney’s window net scenario
Jonathan Hassler responded by saying that he was confident that Blaney would be able to pull the window net up at least almost completely to palliate the organization and as a result of the brief race at the end in OT, he’s just delighted to bring the win home.
“I was hopeful Ryan was able to obviously get the window net up in some capacity to appease them, for the short run we had the end, I’m just thankful we were able to do that and bring the win home,” said Jonathan Hassler.
He concluded by saying that the previous race at Kansas was a blindsiding event and they knew they had to improve and they are hoping to do the same at Charlotte next week.
“I think last week at Kansas was kind of an eye-opening obviously to our teams in terms of we need to continue to improve, and we brought a lot of different ideas. I’m hopeful we’ll be a little bit better when we go to Charlotte next week,” concluded Jonathan Hassler.
With Jonathan Hassler having won another race with his team, he is determined to carry this momentum forward into points racing at Charlotte next week.
Also read: “We’re going to have that car squared away,” a ‘confident’ Joe Gibbs on Kyle Busch’s future with JGR
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