Did Team Penske’s Playoff Strategy Backfire at Talladega?

Sunday’s (Oct. 6) race at Talladega Superspeedway was poised to be a big one for Team Penske.

The three-car team includes Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, and Austin Cindric — all of whom are among the best in the NASCAR Cup Series on drafting tracks. If there is one organization that you can always count on to drive to the front and lead laps at superspeedways, it’s the Penske trio.

For much of the race, everything was going according to plan for The Captain’s squad. Blaney, Logano and Cindric, who are all still in the championship hunt, were running near the front of the pack and doing a solid job managing the draft. But with the end of stage two in sight, things went sideways for Blaney, literally.

A shove from Alex Bowman knocked the No. 12 out of line and right into the path of Ross Chastain. Logano was immediately behind Chastain at the time and he ran into the back of the No. 1 as all three slid across the start/finish line to complete the stage. Blaney’s car was junked, and he was not able to continue the race.

Still, the news was not all bad. Cindric won the stage and picked up 10 valuable points in his quest to advance to the Round of 8. In addition, Logano’s damage was not serious. After a check of the front splitter and some tape to hold the hood in place, the No. 22 was back in the running. Once the final stage began, Logano zipped through the pack and joined Cindric at the front of the field, where both drivers stayed until making their final pit stops with around 20 laps to go.

As the laps ticked away, Cindric led the charge on the bottom line. Former Penske driver Brad Keselowski was pushing Cindric and Logano was pushing Keselowski.

All three were in position to challenge for the win until lap 185 when the field caught up to the lapped car of Todd Gilliland. As the pack roared past Gilliland on the backstretch, the bottom line swerved to miss him and stacked up. Keselowski was closing in quickly on Cindric as the field approached turn 3 and the No. 6 hit the No. 2 too hard in the back bumper. The contact turned Cindric sideways in front of the pack, setting off a 28-car pileup that brought out the red flag. Cindric and Logano were among the drivers in the crash who were unable to finish the race.

The final results were disastrous for the Penske drivers.

Cindric finished 32nd and now stands 11th in points, 29 below the cut line. The stage victory prevented that deficit from being any worse, but…