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Team Penske Comes up Empty-Handed After Dominant Two-Week Stretch

Toby Christie

Rusty Jarrett, NKP for Ford Performance

Team Penske was flat-out dominant in the season-opening Daytona 500 and last weekend's Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. However, the three-car team, which also has a technical alliance with the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team, heads into this weekend's race at Circuit of the Americas with very little to show for their incredible efforts at the two superspeedway events.

The three Penske cars and one Penske-adjacent car have combined to lead 66.8 percent of the laps (312 laps led out of a possible 467) through the opening two races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, but were not able to find themselves up front when the checkered flag fell in either race.

Not only have the Penske Fords been shut out of victory lane, they have combined for just one top-five finish, a fourth-place run by Blaney this past week, in the disappointing opening two-week stretch to the year.

Austin Cindric was perhaps the most snake-bitten driver of the four through the opening two races as he was in a position to win the Daytona 500 and Ambetter Health 400 in the closing laps, when disaster struck both times. This past weekend, Cindric was working to the outside of Kyle Larson for the race lead, when Larson cleared himself and put Cindric into the outside wall.

Cindric's day would disappointingly end with a trip to the infield care center, where he was left seething about the incident with Larson.

RELATED: Austin Cindric: Fast Cars, Hard Work Led to Superspeedway Emergence

"I got put in the wall, wrecked, and didn't win," a dejected Cindric said after exiting the care center.

Cindric continued, "Not clear, I mean not clear. I don't know what information he's getting, but obviously my car was on his outside. It definitely merits a conversation, so, it's unfortunate because we led a lot of laps and had four of the fastest cars at Atlanta, and didn't win with one of them."

The week before, Cindric was leading the field in the Daytona 500 as the white flag was displayed to the field. However, at the conclusion of the chaotic final lap, which featured a Riley Herbst spin in the trioval, and a big crash involving Denny Hamlin on the backstretch, Cindric would come home in eighth.

The 26-year-old has suffered two major heartbreaks in as many weeks.

Speaking of heartbreak, Josh Berry, who led more laps than he's ever led in a NASCAR Cup Series event with 56, also saw his good run come undone thanks to a crash on the final lap of the Atlanta race in an overtime finish, which was spawned due to the incident between Cindric and Larson.

Berry, who was near the front all day long in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford, would be credited with a disappointing 25th-place finish after being heavily involved in the final lap melee.

"We were able to just kind of stay aggressive, stay on offense, and stay up front," Berry said of his race. "You know, I feel like I'm in a situation now where I can succeed. We tried to make the most of it there, we just didn't obviously get the finish we deserved."

It's been more of the same for Team Penske's drivers, who have combined to hoist the last three NASCAR Cup Series championship trophies -- Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.

Logano has led the most laps of anyone in the NASCAR Cup Series garage through the opening two races of the season at 126, but the driver of the No. 22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse doesn't have a single top-10 finish to show for his efforts.

Fortunately, Logano's strong performances have resulted in a ton of Stage Points, which have allowed him to hang onto the 11th-place spot in the championship standings despite finishing 35th after a crash at Daytona, and 12th at Atlanta.

As for Blaney, he hasn't matched the dominance of his other three stable-mates as he's only led 24 laps this season, but the driver has also been in the mix in both races, and has had incidents thwart his hopes of capturing a victory each time.

In the Daytona 500, Blaney was swept up in a Lap 186 crash, which severely hampered his No. 12 Ford. But he was still able to salvage a seventh-place finish due to chaos on the final lap clearing a path for him.

This past weekend, Blaney picked up the pole position at Atlanta Motor Speedway. And while he didn't look to have the dominant car, Blaney was near the front all race long. Then, on Lap 234, he was spun out by Ross Chastain.

Fortunately, Blaney was able to avoid catastrophic damage in the spin, but he would have to put on the rally hat as there were only 27 laps remaining in the event when the race went back green.

Blaney was able to slice and dice his way to a solid fourth-place finish, but the question remains what could have been had it not been for the Lap 234 incident.

Ultimately, it's been a case of what could have been for the entire Team Penske umbrella of cars through the opening two races of the NASCAR Cup Series season. Perhaps the team can finally get the finishes they deserve this weekend as the series heads to Circuit of the Americas for the first road course event on the schedule.

Among the Penske contingent, Cindric has been the most effective at Circuit of the Americas over the four races that have been contested at the facility in Austin, TX.

Cindric has led 17 laps, and has collected two top-10 finishes at the track including a best finish of sixth, which he achieved in 2023.

The NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas is set for Sunday, March 2. The race will be televised by FOX with coverage kicking off at 3:30 PM ET (Full weekend TV schedule here).

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Toby Christie
TOBY CHRISTIE

Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.

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