In the final race of 2022 at Phoenix Raceway, Ryan Blaney played defense against Ross Chastain in order to protect Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, even though he had a car capable of winning the race himself.
Blaney was the one-car buffer between Logano and Chastain that helped preserve the former’s lead in the championship, and he could only watch in his teammate’s tire tracks as Logano took his fourth win of the season and his second NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Blaney, meanwhile, ended the season winless for the first time in his five-year tenure with Penske. Brad Keselowski’s departure at the end of 2021 was the perfect opportunity for Blaney to challenge Logano as Penske’s lead driver, and the 2022 season instead ended in bitter disappointment, serving as his elder teammate’s wingman in the final laps.
Entering the 2023 season at 29 years old, it seemed like a mystery if Blaney would live up to the expectations and become the elite Cup talent that many had pegged him to be.
But ever since that moment, Blaney has done just that and more; he and Logano have had completely opposite trajectories since.
Blaney impressed to the tune of three wins in 2023, breaking his winless drought in a dominant performance at the Coca-Cola 600. He then roared to three top-two finishes in the final three races of last season and claimed his first Cup championship and the second straight for Penske with a runner-up finish at Phoenix last November.
After close calls at both Atlanta Motor Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway earlier this year, Blaney returned to the winner’s circle with a dominant performance at Iowa Speedway on Sunday (June 16). He led 201 of the 350 laps and held off the Hendrick Motorsports duo of William Byron and Chase Elliott despite having a tire disadvantage in the final 85 laps.
Logano, meanwhile, has only scored one win since the start of the 2023 season. That one win came at Atlanta in March a year ago, as he led the most laps and made a last-lap pass against Keselowski to score the win. But there’s been little since that race, and Logano ended last year’s playoffs with an elimination in the Round of 16 — the first defending Cup champion to be eliminated that early in the fall.
What’s concerning is that Logano only led 308 laps last year, which marked his lowest total in a season at Penske. He’s only led 524 laps since the start of 2023, and 317 have come at the drafting tracks of Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Atlanta.
Logano has thus far only led 207 laps at non-superspeedways since the start of last year, which is a mark that Blaney almost surpassed at Iowa alone. Of Logano’s 207 laps led, nearly half of them (84) came at Martinsville Speedway in April.
Through 17 races of the 2024 season, Logano has an average finish of 17.1, which is the worst mark of his Penske tenure. He’s only recorded two top fives and five top 10s with nearly half the 2024 season complete, and he’s currently on pace for his lowest totals in both categories since his previous tenure at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Yes, Logano won the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May and led all but one lap in the process. But that dominance has yet to translate to a points-paying race, and the No. 22 team is currently in hot water, as Logano is six points below the playoff cut line with nine races to go in the regular season.
There’s still plenty of time to make up lost ground, but the No. 22 team needs to show more life than it has. Logano has only scored two top-10 finishes in the last nine races, and even when he’s had those great results, he’s been outshined by his teammates. He finished fifth at Gateway and sixth at Iowa, and both races were won by the Penske stable via Austin Cindric and Blaney, respectively.
Logano is only 34 years old but he’s also in his 16th full-time Cup season. When Martin Truex Jr. retires at the end of 2024, Logano will have the third-longest tenure of full-time Cup drivers, only trailing Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.
Logano has plenty of great years left age-wise, and Blaney is only three-and-a-half years younger than him. But Logano and the No. 22 team have looked off since winning the championship two years ago, while Blaney and the No. 12 team have only continued to get better. And if the results of the last year and a half have been any indication, Blaney has clearly emerged as Penske’s No. 1 driver for the first time in his career.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off…
- Kyle Larson’s quest for the regular season championship and the 15 playoff points that come with it has single handedly been kept alive by all the stage points he’s accumulated. He’s missed one race, has five finishes outside the top 20 and sports an average finishes four positions worse than Elliott, yet he only trails him by eight points in the regular season standings. Through 17 races, Larson has scored eight stage wins and 187 stage points; Christopher Bell is second in stage wins with six, and no one else has scored more than 135 stage points.
- Iowa was a much-needed run for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., as the three-time Xfinity Series Iowa winner scored only his second top five and third top 10 of the season on Sunday. Todd Gilliland also impressed with a 12th-place finish, and he now has eight top 20s in his last 10 starts. Gilliland’s quietly climbed to 20th in the standings after sitting 29th in points just 12 races ago.
About the author
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” He also writes commentary, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
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Has “Sliced Bread” become “Toast”?
There are more than a few drivers that are not having any fun in the new car.
Would anyone be surprised if Joey won a race? I wouldn’t. In fact, I expect it.
Joey will win a race I expect. And no, Joey isn’t the second best driver at Penske.
When Joey wins an example of Brian’s product what will the narrative change to? Title contender?
lol, of course. On the Jim France article, did it say he’s 79 !! So do you think all these ridiculous changes are him !! I think Ben is coming up with the doozies.