AVONDALE, Ariz. — NASCAR has completed three seasons of the Gen 7 era. Only Team Penske has celebrated championship wins. What is the secret?
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The answer depends on who you ask. Ford Performance executives see the work behind the scenes and the attention paid to the fine details. Other people see the sustained success at Phoenix Raceway, the host of the championship race.
Ryan Blaney, the 2023 Cup champion, has a different theory.
"Gosh, we got through it every year — '22, '23 — and this year we sit around at the beginning of the year and in the summer a little bit and come to the playoff time, all of our employees have to sit around, and listen to people saying that we suck and we don't deserve to be here and 'Why are they in the playoffs' and all that s***," Blaney said after finishing second at Phoenix.
"And we've won the last three championships. This team does a great job of rising to doubters, and it's really cool to be a part of that team, and they just work their asses off to figure out what we need to do to get better every single week, and they know how to rise to the occasion come playoff time."
That’s three in a row for The Captain. pic.twitter.com/WlI8bTlfyb
— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) November 11, 2024
Blaney and Joey Logano — now a three-time champion — have certainly capitalized on the opportunities placed before them with the current NASCAR playoff format. They haven't delivered as many wins during the regular season as their peers, but they "flipped that switch" when the playoffs began.
Blaney did just that last season. His No. 12 Team Penske group struggled with consistency during the regular season but reached the playoffs by winning the Coca-Cola 600. Once the playoffs began, it flipped the switch.
Blaney pointed his way through the Round of 16 and then won at Talladega in the Round of 12. He entered the final race of the Round of 8 below the cutline, so he went out and won at Martinsville to punch his ticket to the Championship 4 for the first time.
Once Blaney landed in Phoenix, he capitalized. He finished second in the race behind a non-playoff driver and locked up the championship title. It was his first but it was the second consecutive for Team Penske.
This season was also a fitting example. Logano only made it to the playoffs by stretching his fuel mileage in a chaotic, five-overtime finish at Nashville. He then posted DNFs in three of the final five regular-season races.
Once the playoffs began, Logano immediately won at Atlanta to move on to the Round of 12. This was a clutch moment that took him from well below the cutline and put him ahead of drivers with more wins and playoff points.
Yes, Logano needed a stunning disqualification to move through the Round of 12, but he capitalized on this new life. He won the opening race of the Round of 8 and locked up a spot in the Championship 4.
This victory gave Logano multiple weeks to prepare for the championship race. He did not let the opportunity go to waste as he showed up to Phoenix, said he would put his foot on his competitors' throats, and followed it up by winning his fourth race of the season.
"I'm going to sound like a broken record, but it's people," Logano said about his playoff run. "I also just think that we thrive under pressure. I put myself in high-pressure moments, and part of the reason why I came up here yesterday and started talking crap a little bit is that it puts more pressure on me, and it seems like that helps.
"It's not comfortable, but it seems like as a driver, personally, I'm better that way. I think as a team we thrive under those situations. That's why we have a lot of playoff wins in comparison to the regular season percentage-wise."
Regardless of how these performances happen, Team Penske has continued to deliver trophies to owner Roger Penske. The wins may not always be pretty, but the drivers and team members don't care. What matters to them is that they keep winning.
