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After the June announcement that Todd Gordon would retire at the end of the 2021 season, Ryan Blaney and his No. 12 team have spent the past several months searching for their next leader atop the pit box next season. That search ended Wednesday, as a current crew chief from a Team Penske sister team will call the shots for Ryan Blaney in 2022.

Jonathan Hassler will take over as crew chief for Ryan Blaney in 2022, filling out the team's lineup of Cup crew chiefs. Hassler joins Blaney's team from Wood Brothers Racing -- a team closely affiliated with Penske -- where he has served as the crew chief for Matt DiBenedetto's No. 21 Ford since June.

Hassler will join current Penske crew chiefs Jeremy Bullins and Paul Wolfe, both of whom will remain with the No. 2 and No. 22 teams, respectively. Bullins will be working with a new driver in 2022, as rookie Austin Cindric will fill the seat vacated by Brad Keselowski upon his departure to Roush Fenway Racing.

Hassler, a longtime race engineer for Penske, served as an interim crew chief earlier this year for both DiBenedetto and Joey Logano before being promoted to full-time crew chief for DiBenedetto after the mid-season dismissal of crew chief Greg Erwin. Hassler assuming crew chief duties coincided with an uptick in performance for DiBenedetto, who has one Top 5 and five Top 10 finishes since Nashville in June. DiBenedetto had just two Top 5s and three Top 10s prior to the change.

Gordon's career as a NASCAR crew chief has been coming to an end on a high note, as Blaney has won a career-best three races in 2021, including two in a row to end the regular season at Michigan and Daytona. Entering this weekend's race at Talladega -- where Blaney has won twice -- the third-generation Ohio racer currently sits fifth in the playoff standings, 24 points above the cutoff line for the Round of 8.