LAS VEGAS — From out of the playoffs and back in again one week in Charlotte to a backup car and Victory Lane in the span of 25 hours in Sin City, Team Penske reminded everyone Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway why the organization can never be discounted.
When the checkered flag waved Oct. 13 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, Joey Logano appeared ousted from the Round of 8, out of contention for his third championship in the NASCAR Cup Series. Another team’s disqualification later, and suddenly he’s back in the playoff picture.
Flash forward to Vegas a week later, and Logano wheels the No. 22 Ford back to Victory Lane and onto the Championship 4 with a chance to return to the title winner’s stage at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 10.
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Neither Logano nor his wife, Brittany, could wrap their heads around the events of the past week.
“I talked to her in Victory Lane,” Logano said. “She’s like, ‘Do you believe one week ago at this hour …’ I come walking out of our bedroom, and I said, ‘You’re not going to believe this (expletive).’ You wouldn’t believe it! And here we are a week later. I told her (Sunday), ‘You ain’t going to believe this!””
That roller coaster of emotions was only amplified in the Nevada desert. Every member spent the previous night thrashing to prepare a backup car for defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney, who cut a tire early in Saturday’s practice session and crashed hard into the outside retaining SAFER barrier.
“That’s how you build the foundation of what a team is — examples of hard work and perseverance and a group overcoming and ultimately triumphing,” Travis Geisler, competition director at Team Penske, told NASCAR.com. “You know, you’ve got to have the successes at the end at some point too. And to have this for this team is really special. And I think that it’s not just in our name. Team Penske is how we operate. We’re intensely loyal to each other.”
That unity shined under the bright lights of the Neon Garage Saturday night. While the NASCAR Xfinity Series race roared, members of the Nos. 2, 12, 21 and 22 teams rallied around Blaney’s backup car to best prepare the No. 12 Ford for Sunday’s 400-miler.
For 88 laps, those efforts proved fruitful, with Blaney charging to 17th place by the beginning of Stage 2 after starting from the rear. But a Lap 89 incident negated that work. As fellow playoff drivers Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott collided, Brad Keselowski (coincidentally, a former Penske driver) was involved and spun up the race track — collecting both Blaney and Austin Cindric in the process. Cindric’s day ended with a broken right-front control arm, but the No. 12 team was able to repair a broken toe link enough for Blaney to continue to a 32nd-place finish, eight laps down.
“The whole company pulled together, put a really good car out there,” Geisler said. “I think it had a lot of speed again today, and then to have him have issues and the 2 (Cindric), it’s like, man, it just didn’t feel like it was going to come together.”
Until it did. Just a matter of the “Penske Way.”
WATCH: Blaney wrecks in Vegas practice | Reddick flips; Blaney involved
After a caution for Ty Gibbs’ spin on Lap 193, No. 22 crew chief Paul Wolfe had Logano conserve just enough fuel over the final 69-lap run to surge past Daniel Suárez and hold off a dominant Christopher Bell to net the group’s third win of 2024 — and second on fuel mileage.
“We call him ‘Big Ball Paul’ now,” Logano laughed.
Wolfe and his group of engineers had that strategy call lined up in their playbook all week. Circumstances Sunday allowed them to come to fruition.
“Honestly, when the caution came out there, we didn’t really feel like it was a gamble based off of where we were,” Wolfe told NASCAR.com. “I was actually surprised. We heard guys talking about that they were maybe going to split (the run), but I didn’t realize the majority was thinking that because, like I said, we had talked through this scenario pre-race, and we stuck to what we thought and what we knew, and it worked for us.”
MORE: Paul Wolfe: ‘We were the best team’ | No. 22 fueler Nick Hensley: ‘There’s some dog in this team’
To venture back to Victory Lane was a collective effort — and not just for the No. 22 team. After getting lapped for the eighth time Sunday, Blaney played the role of a good teammate and settled in behind Logano as No. 22 hunted the lead and the win in the closing laps. With the No. 12 on Logano’s tail, the two were able to draft and allow Logano to save more fuel, ultimately resulting in Logano’s triumph.
“I don’t think there’s a team out there that works better together than Team Penske,” Logano said. “That is just in our DNA all the way through. That started years and years and years ago. I can’t even take credit for being part of that. From when I got there (in 2013), the openness between team to team. I remember years ago Brad telling me when I got there, ‘I’d rather you beat me and finish second’ than him beating me and finishing 21st, right? That’s the attitude that we have.
“When you have that all the way through the team, it’s just very helpful for us. Been around long enough to realize that it’s good to see your teammate win. I know you want to be the top dog, right? Obviously. The more I’m around the sport, the more I realize how that really raises the whole team. Then you build relationships with people that make you happy to see. It affects their life, right? Those bonuses are real for the teams. Anything you can do to help those people that you care about is something really special to me.”
That mindset is one Blaney embodied in the closing laps of Sunday’s contest.
“We’re just a big team effort, right? We want to do well for Roger (Penske, team owner),” Blaney said. “We want to do well for everyone who works for us and all of our partners, and we all try to work hand in hand and do the best we can to help. You want to help yourself, but you also want to help the group, right? So, yeah, it’s nice that they were able to pull one out today. Hopefully, we can join them in a couple of weeks.”
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That selflessness shouldn’t be overlooked. Logano’s victory puts Blaney in a more precarious situation with two races remaining as the No. 12 team now sits 47 points beneath the provisional elimination line.
“I can’t thank Ryan Blaney enough,” Geisler said. “What that takes in the position that he’s in right there, where he knows he’s going to have to try to point his way in with something miraculous or win a race to get in, and he sees his teammate maybe in a chance to lock himself in — and knows it’s going to hurt him. There’s only four cars that can make it, and to be in that spot and recognize it and then have the talent and ability to go and actually help Joey to the win. It’s such a proud moment for everybody here at the team, and just want to thank those 12 car guys a lot.”
And just like that, the Penske Way is guiding the program back to the Championship 4 at Phoenix with a chance for The Captain and Co. to claim their third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series title, with Logano triumphing in 2022 before Blaney broke through in 2023.
In an era of parity, Penske continues to rise above. Why?
“People. It’s that simple,” Logano said. “Like I said, Roger has assembled some incredible people at Penske. I know everybody says this about their teams a lot of times; I truly believe it. Got some really solid people, right? Not just what they do at the track, but what they do at home, the way they live. Like I said, I’m really proud to be a part of a team like this.
“Roger’s way of just building people around him, the environment of what’s expected at Team Penske. He doesn’t have to say it anymore, right? When we hire somebody, it’s not like he has to come in there and tell them what he expects. It’s pretty well-known. All of us know. It’s kind of snowballed ever since. Ton of credit to Roger for hiring the correct people, but also creating a culture that’s surrounded or centered by, one, winning, but also doing it in an elite way.”
Perhaps Phoenix will produce another elite moment as Logano chases championship No. 3.
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