.jpg) Hassler celebrating his win in the2024 Iowa Corn 350 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jonathan Hassler Greencastle, Indiana, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Purdue University |
| Occupation | Crew chief |
| Sport | |
| Country |  United States |
| Sport | Motor racing |
| League | NASCAR Cup Series |
| Team | 12.Team Penske |
Jonathan Hassler is an AmericanNASCAR crew chief who works forTeam Penske as the crew chief of their No. 12Ford Mustang Dark Horse in theNASCAR Cup Series driven byRyan Blaney. He is the2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning crew chief.
Hassler is a native ofGreencastle, Indiana and racedgo-karts and minisprint cars starting at the age of 8 and had aspirations of becoming a driver.[1] He decided he wanted to pursue racing as a career around the age of 13.[2] He also played football for 4 years and basketball for 3 years in high school.[3]
Hassler graduated fromPurdue University in 2007 with an engineering degree. While in college, he and some of his classmates (includingChris Gabehart, who also went on to become a NASCAR crew chief) formed an organization called Opportunity Motorsports to help local race teams in the Midwest out as crew members during races, including Hendricks County Motorsports with Gabehart when he was a driver. The group of students would later travel toCharlotte, North Carolina to try to intern or be hired by NASCAR race teams. Hassler would intern as an engineer forMB2 Motorsports /Ginn Racing and then be hired by Penske straight out of college to be an engineer on their Xfinity Series team.[3][2]
After five years working in the Xfinity Series, Hassler was promoted to Penske's Cup Series program and worked on the road crews ofKurt Busch,Brad Keselowski andJoey Logano as an engineer.[2]
Hassler got his first permanent crew chiefing job partway through the 2021 season with the Penske-alignedWood Brothers Racing crew chiefing their famous No. 21 car driven byMatt DiBenedetto, replacingGreg Erwin, who was released from the team.[4] Earlier in the year, Hassler had previously filled in for Erwin as interim crew chief on the No. 21 car in the race atMartinsville in April when he had COVID-19[5] and was interim crew chief on Joey Logano's Penske No. 22 car atDover whenPaul Wolfe was suspended for a lug nut infraction.[6]
Hassler returned to Penske in 2022 to crew chiefRyan Blaney's No. 12 car, replacing the retiredTodd Gordon. They did go winless in their first season together but Blaney and the No. 12 qualified for the 2022 playoffs on points (the only team to do that that year). Their first win together was in the2023 Coca-Cola 600. Hassler and Blaney went on to win the playoff races atTalladega andMartinsville in the fall and the 2023 Cup Series championship together in only his second full season as a crew chief. In 2024, Hassler and Blaney would win three races:Iowa (the first ever Cup Series race at that track),Pocono (Blaney's first win there since his first Cup Series win in 2017) and the fall Martinsville race (for the second year in a row) but finished second in the championship behind their teammate Logano. Hassler also missed the spring race at Talladega due to the birth of his daughter days before the race, and engineer Tony Palmer and Penske Competition DirectorTravis Geisler called the race in-person on the pit box while Hassler would still remotely play a role in race calls back home in North Carolina at the Penske shop.[7]
Hassler has a wife and children.[3] His youngest child was born in April 2024 before the race weekend at Talladega. Hassler had to miss the race but still assisted the team from the Penske shop in North Carolina.[7]