Will Team Penske follow a familiar roadmap in 2024 NASCAR Cup Playoffs? - Speedway Digest

The pattern is familiar. The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin, and Team Penske shows up.

That’s been the case for the past two years, when Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney turned average seasons into spectacular ones during the 10-race Playoffs.

Logano claimed two of his four 2022 victories in the Playoffs, winning at Las Vegas in the first race of the Round of 8 and again at Phoenix to secure his second Cup title.

A year Later, Blaney won at Talladega to make the Round of 8 and triumphed at Martinsville to qualify for the Championship 4 season finale, where he finished second to non-Playoff driver Ross Chastain to earn his first championship in NASCAR’s premier division.

In Sunday’s 2024 Playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Team Penske excelled en masse, sweeping all seven Playoff points and leaving the rest of the Playoff drivers to fight over crumbs.

Logano took command of the race in the late going, leading the final two laps in overtime to secure his second victory of the season. The win propelled the driver of the No. 22 Ford into the Round of 12, removing the pressure of upcoming Playoff races at Watkins Glen and unpredictable Bristol Motor Speedway.

Logano also picked up an additional five Playoff points that will accrue to his benefit in the next round.

Having pushed Logano to the win in overtime, Blaney finished third on Sunday after leading 33 laps and winning the first stage of the Quaker State 400. With top-seeded Kyle Larson exiting the race after a hard crash on Lap 56, Blaney assumed the series lead by five points over fourth-place finisher Christopher Bell.

Blaney’s finish was all the more remarkable, given that his No. 12 was swept up in a four-car accident when Chris Buescher’s Ford broke loose on the backstretch on Lap 205. Overcoming the damage, Blaney was right behind Logano and ready to push when overtime arrived.

“Yeah, honestly I can’t believe we got back up where we did,” Blaney said. “The 12 boys did a really good job fixing it. I’m surprised it didn’t have more damage than what it did. From my seat, I got drilled in the left rear… the door I guess is where it hit me.

“I didn’t know how damaged we were. I was kind of able to carve up through traffic, could kind of get through the middle pretty good. So, yeah, really proud of the effort.”

Austin Cindric, whose lone victory this season came at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, dominated Stage 2, leading a race-high 92 laps and collecting a Playoff point in the process.

Trouble with left-side tires on the pit stop at the stage break dropped Cindric deep in the field, but he recovered to finish 10th and climbed to seventh in the standings heading to Watkins Glen.

“We just got off cycle there with a bad pit stop and just really took a long time to get back up to the front of the field,” Cindric said. “I feel like I could have made some better decisions on the last couple of restarts, but a solid effort all around with all of the challenges of pack racing.”

One race doesn’t predict another championship for a Team Penske driver, but it does indicate the organization is ready to compete for the title. Logano already has earned a spot in the Round of 12. After surviving Atlanta, Blaney and Cindric are well-positioned to move on, too.

“We all talked about how wild-card this round could be,” Logano said. “We knew that the Penske cars would be strong on the superspeedway-type racetracks. We’ve been all year long. Unfortunately, we’ve been caught up in every possible wreck on these types of tracks.

“It’s nice to finally capitalize on the laps led, being towards the front, having a teammate lined up behind me there. He scored a ton of points today, too, being up there.

“A good day for Team Penske all the way through. Cindric did, too. A really special day for Penske to be able to score some good points and set themselves up pretty good for the Round of 12.”