What makes Penske so good in this playoff format?

Team Penske has been all about winning for quite some time, and this past weekend marked another chapter in the team’s storied history.

Since Roger Penske retired as a driver in 1965, his teams have always managed to achieve winning streaks, even when they were not in the NASCAR championship. For proof, just look at last year’s NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney. When Penske won its first Cup championship in 2012, not many thought the motorsports tycoon’s team would be in the position it is in today.

However, looking back at the last regular season champions, the team did not have the best results throughout the entire season. Instead, Penske has waited to do something in the postseason, especially since the current playoff format was implemented.

Since 2017, Penske drivers have won three Cup championships: Joey Logano twice and Blaney once, more than anyone since then. But how did they do it? The truth might be more boring than some people want to believe, especially if they have Penske gear lying around the pad.

Fans would be forgiven for thinking that Penske’s trio would be cornered at times during the regular season given their postseason results, but reality simply doesn’t bear out that train of thought.

Blaney and Logano won numerous races during their championship seasons. One may have a little more instinct for final lap passes than the other, but they were usually won without too much noise. Put simply, Penske and his drivers had successful regular seasons in the years their drivers won the championship.

No one from Penske would say that they were saving their cars, strategies or data until the end, because if that were the case, they simply wouldn’t get to the end to implement the things the team saved.

Cup teams can’t afford to play sandbags. The field is too competitive, too fast, and far too top-heavy to avoid any design implementation or data utilization at the fastest possible effective time. No, Penske doesn’t ruin anything.

Penske’s largest competitors, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, each employ four drivers. This means these teams pay for four charters, four cars, four drivers and four full staffs to help these teams compete at the highest level possible.

JGR driver Denny Hamlin of course owns 23XI Racing, which to many is just an extension of the JGR name, making the stable even larger.

It doesn’t take a mathematician to say that Penske only employs three people: Logano, Blaney and Austin Cindric. That means at least 25% more money and at least 25% fewer headaches when it comes to fielding a competitive team. Cindric may not have made a name for himself yet, but he’s showing signs, especially this year.

Of course, Penske has other teams, considering Penske Entertainment owns INDYCAR and races in other series, but overall its NASCAR operation is a large part of the overall motorsports division. And it will be exponentially cheaper since there is no NASCAR Xfinity Series team and only three Cup drivers will be fielded.

It’s a saying as old as time itself, but in Penske’s case it may be more true than anywhere else. Roger Penske may be the most patient man in NASCAR.

Remember when Blaney was signed to the team from the Wood Brothers Racing car. Was he a championship driver at this point? Absolutely not. Now he’s in his seventh season with the team and has a really good chance of making it to a decade.

After Brad Keselowski won the team’s first championship in 2012, when will he next take home the big one? Trick question, because the answer is never. However, he continued to run for the team until the formation of RFK Racing, his current team, in 2022.

Logano began racing with Penske in 2013. Now, more than a decade later, he has brought the team two championships and will be competing for a third championship later this season.

This is where Penske has the edge: patience.

There is no secret sauce. There is no dark magic going on. There is no deep strategic game. Penske is patient and determined in the development of his drivers and has brought the team four championships in its relatively short history, with another potentially on the way.