NASCAR insiders debate level of concern for Cup Series field as Team Penske dominates

One team — Team Penske — stands above the field 14 races into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. Yes, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson have three wins. William Byron has the most points. None of those drivers are a part of Penske.

But where Penske has the edge is each of its drivers are locked into the playoffs, and the calendar just shifted to June. Joey Logano won at Texas Motor Speedway, Austin Cindric won at Talladega Superspeedway and Ryan Blaney took the checkered flag at Nashville Superspeedway. Josh Berry, who drives for Wood Brothers Racing which shares a technical alliance with Penske, won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Right now, Penske seems to be “ahead of the game,” Jeff Gluck of The Athletic said on “The Teardown” podcast.

“Whereas last year at the time, Logano wins his way into the playoffs with the five overtime [at Nashville] and you had Gateway as well [Cindric’s win], all four of those Penske cars — this is only the 14th race of the regular season, so just past the halfway point — everyone associated with Penske has won a race. Seems like they’re ahead of the game at this point,” Gluck said.

Team Penske hanging with Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing

Penske typically doesn’t dominate this time of the year. Instead, they save that for the 10-race postseason, where they have won all three Championships in the Next Gen era. Still, it has to be encouraging for Penske to be this good at this point.

Gluck’s colleague, Jordan Bianchi, isn’t sure it matters all that much. Again, getting hot in the postseason is what matters most. Penske knows that better than anybody.

“It’s hard to say because if you can tell me they’re gonna maintain this, great. But we have seen, and Penske is the chief example of this, it doesn’t necessarily matter what you do right now. It’s a matter of about getting hot come the playoff and taking advantages of those opportunities when they come,” Bianchi said. “What I think stands out about to me is the fact they started the season strong, and they’ve been really good at every single type of track. … This is intermediate tracks. It’s superspeedways. Really, road courses have been their only hiccup this year.

“Right now, they’re in a position where they can take some chances in the next few road course races. They don’t have to worry about points and that kind of thing. They have consistency out of their organization that we haven’t seen necessarily. We don’t know what that’s going to be come the playoffs. Who knows, it could be a 23XI that rises up. It could be a Trackhouse. We don’t know, and that’s going to be the interesting thing.”