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Motorsport

Penske favored at New Hampshire as Playoff pressure rises

Penske Bubba Wallace Joey Logano Chase Elliott Christopher Bell Ryan Blaney Chase Briscoe William Byron Austin Cindric Denny Hamlin

There are several reasons to feel like the Mobil 1 301 on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway runs through Team Penske.

Joey Logano was the Ford representative during a July tire test
Then Logano wins the pole
Ryan Blaney was fastest in long runs in practice
Team Penske captured the top-3 spots in qualifying

So yeah, it’s not a given that this race runs through a Penske Ford because Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain also tested but there was a common answer about the expected hierarchy for Sunday.

For example, William Byron was fastest overall in single-lap times in practice but says the Penske cars didn't fall off the way his did.

“Well, it looks that way about the Penskes in qualifying for sure,” Byron said. “I thought (Blaney) was really strong in race trim and he was just able to plateau and stay below my speed the whole run. I thought I was good for what our standards here. I don’t know how good it is but I’m optimistic about how our car feels and what we can get out of it.”

Joe Gibbs Racing has swept all three playoff races so far at Darlington, Gateway and Bristol but Southern 500 Chase Briscoe suggested the Penske cars seemingly had the best balance on Saturday.

“Definitely,” Briscoe said. “At the test, it’s hard to tell because a team comes back and it’s not apples-to-apples, but Bell said they didn’t feel very good and the Penske cars were unbelievable. So we get here and the Penske cars seem to be unbelievable. I think we have something for them, and there isn’t a lot we can change now, but coming back next year for sure if not tomorrow.”

Bell referenced that test too.

"At the test, we were not the fastest one here for sure," Bell said. "I’m glad that we weren’t racing that day in July at the tire test and hopefully we made performance gains. I think that the cars are really good - now. (Penske) is really good now. I think we’ve made an uptick in performance now versus what we had in the tire test, but I’m sure the rest of the competitors could say the same thing."

And it’s not like Penske was universally ‘unbelievable’ on Saturday because playoff driver Austin Cindric was amongst the back half of the field and will start

“Our first run was pretty far off,” Cindric said. “We probably just overshot but was able to get our car turning across the center pretty well by the end.”

What about the other Toyotas, Bubba Wallace?

“I don't really know what our expectation was,” Wallace said. “We expected to be faster than what we were at that tire test is paying off for Penske, 1-2-3.”

With that said, Wallace isn’t sweating it if Penske wins, unless (jokingly) it’s Blaney.

“I would be more ticked off if Blaney wins because I would have to wait for him to get done before we fly back,” Wallace said with his signature laugh. “That’s going to be the most frustrating part.

“But no seriously, the race hasn’t happened yet, and we have to just roll with it. We’re 14 so kind of awful because I have been qualifying way better than that lately. We’ll figure out what we need. This place is tricky. I’m not going to settle and we’re going to go to work tomorrow.”

Starting on pole, Logano feels confident.

“I think we’ve got a good shot there’s no doubt,” he said. “When I look at Loudon on the schedule, I feel like it’s one of those racetracks that’s in our wheelhouse – flat one-mile type tracks seems like it’s a Team Penske kind of thing. Hopefully, we can translate this pole into a win because that’s what really matters.”

Logano expects to have to race Blaney for the win and even gave Byron some credit as a potential competitor for Victory Lane too.

“The 12 looked really fast. I think we can get there with some adjustments, hopefully, and be able to compete with him, but with that said the 24 looked pretty strong too,” Logano said. “There are some other cars that are definitely in the mix, so we’ve got to be perfect. That’s how it is to win these races these days. Everyone is close.

“It’s not like someone is just two-tenths faster than the field like we’ve seen here in the old car. First to 20th is pretty close, so a lot of times you can put the best car and put it 20th and it’s gonna run 20th. It’s just really hard to move through the field when everyone is running the same speed, so you’ve just got to be really good.

“We’ve got the track position to start. There’s a lot of opportunities in this race if cautions fall in interesting places where two tires are options, no tires. We’ve seen that happen a lot here, where the field can get jumbled out pretty quickly, so you’ve got to be great on strategy, which I’ve got a really good team when it comes to that piece of it.”

Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (Photo by: Michael Bush - Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Pressure is on

It didn’t seem like a great day for Chase Elliott and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 on Saturday.

On one hand, the car seemed to have long run speed based on the 10 and 20 lap averages but the short-run speed wasn’t there based on the 20th fastest practice lap and a 27th fastest qualifying run.

And once he completed his said qualifying run, Elliott reported to the media center for a brief availability that it was very obvious he wasn’t interested in participating in this weekend.

Q: What's the challenge starting where you are tomorrow?
A: It's standard.

Q: How do you make your way forward?
A: Just grind it out. Keep the right rear on it. Make the most of whatever it is. Fight to the death.

Q: Was the car better than it was in practice?
A: Yeah, I thought we were respectable in practice but (qualifying) was what it was; hopefully better tomorrow.

Q: New Hampshire isn’t a typical track you go to so does anything change in the preparation?
A: I'm not, we've raced here enough

Q: Can you learn anything for Phoenix this weekend?
A: I'm not worried about Phoenix right now.

A lot of those questions were not from regulars, several local media members, and he did give a longer response from a beat writer about the swing of emotions last week at Bristol where he briefly thought he was eliminated after a crash.

“For me, it was just being in the moment there,” he said. “I didn’t know what the situation was and no one had fallen out yet, and I just thought we were only going to get one point, and felt no way that would be enough.

“I got super fortunate and lucky that it bought us three more weeks, so try to make the most of them.”

Is that intensity or pressure, or reflective of a tough day, why he seemed uncharacteristically short?

“No, feeling normal,” he said and then walked off.

The entire availability was less than three minutes, which is more than his right but it also seems to be a reflection of the pressure and intensity of the moment after nearly falling out of the playoffs and needing to find another figurative gear the next three weeks to chase a second championship.

Playoff grid

Denny Hamlin +26
Kyle Larson +24
William Byron +24
Christopher Bell +20
Ryan Blaney +19
Chase Briscoe +10
Chase Elliott +5
Bubba Wallace +1
---
Austin Cindric -1
Ross Chastain -2
Joey Logano -2
Tyler Reddick -3

Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota (Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)

Setting the stage

On one hand, Joey Logano looks at risk of elimination but on the other, he also feels like this is the championship caliber program he has had in any of his six previous Final Four campaigns.

“Each of those seasons have been the same, in that we become a grind it out kind of race team,” Logano said. “We just keep plugging away and winning the races that matter and capitalizing on situations, even if we’re not the fastest car.

“A lot of times we’re able to somehow manipulate something to put ourselves in position.”

Wallace referenced that in his own scrum too.

“And getting in when the 48 gets disqualified.”

It was a joke … with an element of truth.

Anyway, Logano …

“It’s so cliche’ – never quit – but it seems like our team just keeps grinding and grinding and eventually you find yourself there,” Logano said. “There’s something to say for us being consistent and prepping the same way and doing everything all-out all the time.

“You might not see the rewards immediately, but over time you start to see some of that. I think that’s just the kind of team we are. You just keep going. You keep asking the hard questions. You keep challenging yourself. You challenge your teammates. It’s not fun to do it that way.”

This is Wallace’s best season, and one that he’s becoming a low-key threat to make the final four, and he is not letting the pressure exceed the pleasure. It would be easy to feel frustrated going from a first round performance that had him 52 above the cutline to right back on the bubble.

“It is what it is,” Wallace said, shrugging. “We keep doing what we’ve been doing and we’re going to be fine.”

Ross Chastain says nothing has changed in the Trackhouse shop.

“We are a team full of professionals and we don’t get too high and we don’t get too low.”

After sweeping the first round, Bell says Gibbs drivers have every expectation of keeping it going.

“I think, you look at the race tracks on paper and they say that we should be really good at all of these tracks, and we should be able to have good performance,” Bell said. “The toughest thing is just going to be going out there and doing it and not eliminating yourself. I think that all of us, myself, Denny and Chase – even Bubba and Tyler – all of the Toyotas, they’re going to have speed.

‘We’re going to be capable so just got to dot your i’s and cross your t’s and do your job. I think if it’s up to car performance, we’ll probably be fine but the execution side and finishing the races out, making sure that you make the right decisions on restarts, the right strategy calls, not making mistakes on long green flag runs – stuff like that -- is going to be the difference maker in the Round of 12.”