While there were a lot of compelling storylines to come out of Sunday’s (May 1) race at Dover Motor Speedway, one of the biggest mysteries to come out of the race was what happened to the Team Penske cars on Sunday. Aside from Ryan Blaney winning a stage, the Penske cars struggled mightily, including former NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano who was never really near the front and teammate Austin Cindric didn’t finish the event after a crash ended his day early.
It was a bit alarming for Team Penske fans that as soon as Blaney lost track position he wasn’t able to work his way through the field and ended up finishing 26th, three laps down. That got us thinking: With the lack of speed that the team showed on Sunday, is it possible that Team Penske could have a car miss the playoffs?
Anthony Damcott and Clayton Caldwell give their thoughts on the topic.
Team Penske Should Not Be Panicking
Admittedly, this is not the same Team Penske we saw last year. For obvious starters, it has a completely different driver in the No. 2 this year with Cindric replacing Brad Keselowski. But its performance is lower than expected, to say the least, this far into the season. However, we are still just 11 races into the 2022 season, and we haven’t even hit the summer stretch yet.
It’s easy for columns like this to point most of the blame to the Next Gen car for the team’s struggles, and I do think that adjusting to a new car is part of why they’ve had some poor runs, but there are other reasons that could be the reason for their struggles. The team will find its footing.
It’s not like the Team Penske cars haven’t shown speed this season. Cindric has the team’s only points win so far this season, but what better place to win at than the Daytona 500? He also won the pole for the very next race at Auto Club Speedway. Logano won the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and was three-quarters of a lap away from winning his duel race at…
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