NASCAR insider reacts to potential for Penske to miss Championship 4 entirely after Las Vegas

Team Penske had themselves a stinker in Sunday’s Round of 8 playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Joey Logano, who won that race last season, never had the speed to compete. Ryan Blaney, meanwhile, saw his day end early after he blew a tire on Lap 73.

Yes, Logano salvaged the day with a P6 finish after crew chief Paul Wolfe made a two-tire call during the final pit stop. But otherwise, it wasn’t a good day for Logano and the No. 22 team. Both Logano and Blaney are well below the playoff cutline with two Round of 8 races remaining. Logano is minus-24, Blaney is minus-31.

Suddenly, there’s a real possibility that Penske could be left out of entirely of the Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Jeff Gluck of The Athletic didn’t see that coming.

“That dynamic now is fascinating, and to hear the drivers talk about it after the race, it really changed so much today, what happened with Ryan Blaney,” Gluck said on The Teardown podcast. “… The good news for Penske is they have two of their best tracks coming up, Talladega and Martinsville.

“The bad news is, as Logano was talking after the race, now instead of one car being the points car for Penske and one car being the must-win car, now they’re sort of in a must-win. It’s not a total must-win, but he said it would have to be extremely special the next couple weeks.”

Team Penske backed into a corner after disappointing day at Las Vegas

Penske has been the championship winner each year of the Next Gen era. They were thought to be the favorites again this season with the schedule setting up favorably in the postseason. Now, both Logano and Blaney have some serious work to do just to get there. A potentially Penske-less Phoenix is good news for Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, Gluck said.

“As a result, Kyle Larson was saying this after the race, we’ve all been thinking that probably at least one Penske car is gonna be in the final four and if they are in the final four at Phoenix, people feel like these guys are unbeatable, they’re gonna be the heavy favorites, we’re all racing for second if a Penske car is there. Suddenly, it’s a very real possibility a Penske car may not be there,” Gluck said. “Larson was like, ‘Hey, I feel like we can go race with the Gibbs guys.’ The Penske guys, he was like [concerned] but the Gibbs guys, ‘I feel like I can get there, and I can have something for them.’

“So, if Pheonix turns out to be Hendrick-Gibbs and Penske is not part of this equation, that’s a whole different ballgame than we’ve been talking about if a Penske car is involved. Obviously, they won the championships in the Next Gen era there. To think that we can count them out would be a huge mistake and very stupid, but it suddenly became more realistic.”