Team Penske drivers are somehow still in contention for a Cup title, and frankly, that alone is a massive accomplishment given where they were at midway through this season. Earlier struggles on the intermediate tracks made it look like Ford was out of it completely for The Chase. But man, things can turn around fast, can’t they? Now Ryan Blaney is sitting fifth in the standings, just 85 points back, and Joey Logano is right there too, 92 points behind.
From “Big Trouble” To Back-To-Back Top Fives: Penske’s Turnaround
Think about where these guys were. Blaney was finishing 24th at Kansas, 16th at Vegas, and seventh at Charlotte earlier in the year. Fast forward to the Kansas-Vegas-Charlotte stretch that just wrapped, and he pulled off a fifth, another fifth, and then a third place. That’s some serious grit right there. Logano’s not slacking either, his ninth-place finish at Charlotte gave him back-to-back top 10s. His combined points from these three tracks shot up to 85, a huge leap from the 59 points he scored at those same tracks earlier. Austin Cindric even snagged back-to-back top fives at Kansas and Vegas, though his Charlotte finish wasn’t his best.
Blaney himself knows the score, telling reporters, “There’s no secret of early in the year and then the summer, it’s like, ‘Oh boy, we’re in big trouble. They really have a leg up on us.’” He also gave props where they’re due. “These three tracks were super important, and I think our whole building has done a really good job of getting better. I think we’ve gained a step.” But ever the competitor, he added, “We’re still about half a step behind. Their fire-off speed is just unbelievable. It’s just hard to keep up with them taking off, and I gain about half of it back at the end of a run. But obviously, the math does the math there. So we’ve still got a little work to do.” You gotta respect that honesty.
The 2027 Ford Body: Is It The Real Game Changer?
So, the big question now is how they keep this momentum rolling into next year, especially with Ford getting a new body in 2027. Logano dropped some interesting insight on what’s driving the current gains. He told reporters that it’s “not really the body that the gains have come from. A lot of it is the setup and finding something finally that kind of seems to fit what I want, what I need in the car.” He’s upfront about the future too, acknowledging, “Yes, there’s going to be somewhat of a learning curve with a new body, but the things that we have found and the things we like and what I need in the car isn’t really body-dependent.” That’s huge. It suggests the team’s internal work on setups might be more impactful than a shiny new shell.
Blaney believes they can absolutely build on what they’ve learned. “There’s things you can take, and a lot of people that are a lot smarter than me are going to do the right work to figure out just overall balance,” he said. He detailed how Ford approached the new body, with “a lot of discussions on where do we need to be better , front downforce, rear downforce, side force, all the little things. And Ford kind of went to work and tried to do the best they can. You can always learn.” Mark Rushbrook, Ford Racing Global Director, confirmed that 2027 will bring “some unknowns” but emphasized the new body’s “greater potential in terms of what is designed into it.” Still, with all the CFD and wind tunnel tech, he admitted, “we still don’t know how it is going to race on track on all these different s[urfaces/tracks].”
What’s clear is Team Penske is proving they can adapt and fight their way back into the thick of it. The work Blaney says they still need to do, combined with the mystery of the 2027 body, sets up an incredibly interesting end to this season and a wild start to the next. Can they close that “half a step behind” gap? We’ll be watching every lap to find out.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Fox Sports.
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