‘Here come the yellow cars’ as NASCAR playoffs shift at Loudon

“Here come the yellow cars with subpar metrics, along the way, but man do those guys know how to get it done when it counts.”

That was Joe Gibbs Racing competition director Chris Gabehart in reference to Team Penske after a really dominant performance by the Ford Racing flagship on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

This is especially relevant because this is the right-side tire compound and rules package that will decide the championship in November at Phoenix. Team Penske has won the past three championships with Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.

Logano won the pole this weekend and Blaney won the race after fending off satellite teammate Josh Berry.

“The Penske cars were completely untouchable again,” Gabehart said. “I know what it’s like to be untouchable. We’ve been fortunate enough to be on the right side of that but the reality is we have a lot of work to do with this package and that’s the focus. The rest of it is just noise.

“We have to get better.”

That’s a telling quote from the competition director that had won three straight races to open the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs but none of those races took place with the package that will be used at Phoenix either.

It’s also a telling result because Gibbs had also won the previous three Cup Series races at New Hampshire using this car until Blaney snapped the streak on Sunday.

“Massive props to all of Team Penske, Wood Brothers,” Blaney said. “We did a great job leading up to this race and preparing, through the weekend, practice, qualifying in the race. Our cars are really fast, as in the entire company. That’s something they should really be proud of.

“I’m just in the fortunate situation I get to drive a fast race car. Yeah, it speaks volumes of the hard work that they’ve done, and I think for us to run first, Josh to run second, was Joey third or fourth? Top five, stage win, that’s a great day. Huge props to them. Couldn’t be prouder of them. It was nice we were able to capitalize on having such fast cars.”

And with that, Blaney is now just one stage away from racing for his second championship in three years and a third straight final four appearance. It’s a relief to Team Penske NASCAR president Michael Nelson.

“My stress has been reduced by one-third,” Nelson said with a laugh. “We’ve got two more to try to get in here these next couple weeks.

“This goes a long way. It’s really good to see this team get the win. They’ve had the fastest car quite a bit here recently. It’s good to bring it home for them just for the win’s sake, but also it’s huge to obviously have a little bit of breathing room for the next round.”

That’s especially true given the unpredictability of the final race of this round, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.

And the reality that Gibbs isn’t just going to let Penske have it either. 

“It’s going to be tough,” Gabehart said. “They’re really good. They have a championship winning pedigree that goes back decades for the same reason that Hendrick Motorsports is going to be tough. It really is a pedigree. So when it comes to late race playoff season, we’re all going to be tough.”

Playoff Grid

Ryan Blaney Adv
Kyle Larson +47
Christopher Bell +29
Denny Hamlin +27
Joey Logano +24
Chase Elliott +14
Chase Briscoe +12
—
Ross Chastain -12
Austin Cindric -19
Tyler Reddick -23
Bubba Wallace -27

The game has changed 

Suddenly the Penske cars have come to life and 23XI Racing went the other way. Even the Hendrick cars, which struggled at times during the first round, each had really solid showings on Sunday.

The dynamic has flipped from the first round.

Chase Briscoe won the Southern 500 and was immediately locked into the second round but leaves this first race on the bubble because he didn’t score any stage points to alongside a top-10.

This is how quickly things can change in this format.

“It was not a great day for us,” Briscoe said. “On the race track, we never really had any issues but on pit road we kept losing positions. Just hard to do that in the Playoffs and not sacrifice a finish because of it. I thought our car was okay. We definitely didn’t have anything for the Penske cars. I would’ve taken a 10th after yesterday but also felt like we kind of left a lot on the table today just on pit road and whatnot. We’ll move on to Kansas.

“The positive thing is we’re above the cutline. That was the goal of today and we were able to do that. We’ll go on to Kansas where I feel like our car should be way better and hopefully capitalize on it there.”

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota; Riley Herbst, 23XI Racing Toyota

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Meanwhile, the 23XI Racing Toyotas driven by Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, were nowhere close to the figurative ballpark with finishes of 21st and 26th.

“Just a miss all around really,” Wallace said. “We couldn’t really seem to get things going. Our best run lasted for five laps, the caution came out and then it was just right back to no good. I hate it. I felt really optimistic and marched forward at the start and it just never really went anywhere.

“We kind of plateaued on lap 5 and that was it. I hate that. It’s just a head scratcher. I told our team we’re way better than that. We know it. As much of a gut punch as this one is, we’ll move on. This is what we’ve got to do.”

Reddick fought a stiff brake pedal early in the race but also simply didn’t have speed.

“Yeah, I didn’t expect that, that’s for sure,” Reddick said. “The way the race started, I thought we were going to be able to run (inside) the top-10 all day but between the brake issues we had, it just got away.

“The balance went away and then, next thing I know we were trying to battle for 20th so it was just a terrible day.”

For all the talk of Penske dominance, that performance did not extend to Austin Cindric, for reasons he could not fully understand immediately after the race either.

“Yeah, I mean that’s a great question,” Cindric said. “I can only speak about myself but I had really great long run speed but never felt like I was able to capitalize in it and botched my lap in qualifying, which set us back, and you have to restart well and I struggled with that.

“My guys threw a lot at the car today and it’s just a shame. Several other playoff drivers were not able to get stage points and that keeps us in the hunt but not the day we wanted.”

What now?

Cindric, Reddick and Wallace are in an increasingly tough spot barring some lucky breaks over the next two weeks.

Certainly, if all three perform the way they did the last round, it’s not insurmountable but the hurdle in giving up a race in this three-race round is that they now will need the likes of Penske, Hendrick and Gibbs drivers either faltering or having an issue.

Luck is not a strategy as they say.

“I wish it was easy to say ‘just move on from it’ but it’s not,” Wallace said. “We are a better team than that.”

So can they prove it at Kansas where he won in 2023?

“Guess we’ll see.”

Reddick was as despondent as his teammate.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s just, we have struggled all year.”

Cindric, true to character, was the most upbeat.

“Kansas is a place to where we have a lot of potential and I’m looking forward to it.”

And Kansas is so important because no one wants to go to the Charlotte Roval feeling like they have to make it happen there.

“One week at a time,” Cindric said. “Let’s get there first.”

Berry impresses 

The playoffs are a story of what could have been for Josh Berry and the first race after his elimination was a story of what could have been too.

It was not a lack of performance or speed that eliminated the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 in the first round. Berry made a mistake from inside the top-5 on low air pressure at the start of the Southern 500, was crashed by Chase Elliott at Gateway, and then caught fire at Bristol.

How did he respond the very next round? Well, he once again was involved in an early incident from within the top-10 but also rebounded to nearly outright defeating Blaney on older tires at New Hampshire.

Berry was tagged by Shane Van Gisbergen on Lap 82.

Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

“Those things happen here all the time – and it’s a choice,” Berry said. “It’s a choice on a restart, whether you’re going to leave your right front in there and wreck him or you’re going to live to fight another day.

“On all of these restarts, there is choice after choice after choice. Even if I did come down a little bit, I have cut him plenty of breaks over the course of the year. Just live to race another lap – there is still 200-something laps to go.”

Berry rebounded to 10th in the second stage and did not pit when the final caution waved. He inherited the lead but was quickly passed by Blaney on fresher right-side tires by just nine laps.

“I mean obviously, he had the two tires and those fired off a little better,” Berry said. “We struggled a little bit firing off on the restarts. He was able to get around us there, but then it seemed like I was going to make a run at him.”

Berry did get to the bumper a couple of times but slipped up the track and had to settle for second.

“It’s just, it’s a battle there,” he said. “We were both slipping and sliding and obviously having the clean air helps a lot. He was able to play defense when I would get pretty close and then I would slip. All in all, it was a fun battle and Ryan is a great race car driver. I have a ton of respect for him. And if I couldn’t do it, I am glad it was him.”

It was a day that would have made him a legit championship threat if not for everything that went wrong in the first round.