Team Penske has found the formula for winning NASCAR championships

(Photo: Ryan Blaney drove the No. 12 Team Penske Ford to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship)

The NextGen(or Gen 7) car was introduced into NASCAR Cup Series competition at the beginning of the 2022 season. Within the seasons of its existence, Hendrick Motorsports has won a total of 21 races with Joe Gibbs Racing running second in those totals with 14 triumphs. And in the statistic that shows teams are meeting their initial goal for each season, HMS and JGR lead all organizations with a total of six drivers each qualifying for the NASCAR Playoffs with a chance to win the championship. 

But in the statistic that means the most, it has been Team Penske that has hoisted the most prized trophy in the sport at the end of the season in both 2022 and 2023. Joey Logano claimed the title last year then Ryan Blaney was crowned at the end of this most recent campaign. 

In both cases, Penske drivers weren't necessarily the best throughout the season but they did what every NASCAR Cup Series champion has done since the inception of the playoff format by winning the season finale at Phoenix Raceway to earn the glory. 

The formula for success seems like a simple one. Get drivers into the Playoffs, do what is needed to advance round by round, and win the race in Phoenix. But anyone who knows anything about racing knows it isn’t that easy. The level of competition in today’s NASCAR won’t allow for any other team to simply waltz its way to a championship just because it’s part of some plan. 

“We’ve had a lot of championships but at the level we’re racing at in NASCAR, I’ve never seen it before,” team owner Roger Penske stated regarding the toughness of the competition in NASCAR. “My great friend Rick Hendrick, I think, has 15 or 16 and to think about it we’re just excited to have four so we’ve got a long way to go.”

But every team in NASCAR has that same plan of winning a championship. So what has separated Penske’s operation from that of the other serious contenders for the Cup title?

The owner known as ‘The Captain’ credited the No. 12 car’s crew chief Jonathan Hassler, his entire company, and their manufacture. 

“Back-to-back shows the strength of our organization,” Penske added. “We really weren’t that strong in the middle part of the season but Jonathan and the engineering team along with Ford went forward and helped us get better and better. You could see how well the Fords ran here today(at Phoenix), it was a combination of many things. But for me personally, we love the competition and we love the stress but we also love to sit down here and say we’re champions.”

Even before the introduction of the Next Gen, the Penske team had shown considerable strength by winning championships with Brad Keselowski in 2012 and Joey Logano in 2018 making it four titles in just over a decade. 

“As we were gaining momentum in NASCAR, NASCAR was changing,” Penske explained. “Technically, I think it moved in our direction. As we got into this, we built this solid team. Over ten years, we’ve had some really strong cars and I think that’s all about the people and them staying with us. The Ford Motor Company has supported us tremendously during the switch.”

Showing strength in the early and middle portions of the season is nice for adding trophies to the showroom display but Team Penske has shown that the biggest prize of all is acquired by being at their best over the closing weeks of the campaign. 

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