Finally, the playoffs have commenced, and what a great race to begin it with. Atlanta had its share of wrecks, clean racing, lead changes, and tactful racing. Motorsports are mostly individual sports when the driver gets on a race, even if you have a teammate in another car. And the competition is fierce as you race majorly for personal glory. Like in Formula One, two teammates have gone to the extent of wrecking each other while snatching the lead.

However, this is what is special about NASCAR. Despite being individual in nature, it still boasts the saying, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” The Penske team did just that. Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano worked perfectly in sync in a 2v2 battle to victory. The team Penske got their first win in the playoffs. Also bagging the first spot in the round of twelve.

Ryan Blaney pushes Joey Logano to the victory

The closing laps of the Atlanta race were beautiful. Where often we see wrecks, we saw two teams working together to get a win at the playoff opener. It was Trackhouse vs Penske! With just 3 laps to go, Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain were in the outside row race, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney side by side. On the final restart, Suárez initially gained the upper hand over Logano, with Chastain behind him. However, Blaney helped Logano reclaim the lead during the lap. The Penske push on the inside line proved successful, as Suárez’s support on the outside faded.

Logano finished in P1, Suarez missed out on an Atlanta back-to-back staying in P2, and the defending NASCAR Cup series champion finished 3rd. With the race, both the Penske drivers are leading the playoffs while Logano is already through to the next round. Blaney is the table topper after the first race. Post the race, Logano thanked his teammate in a press conference; he said, “I have to go back and really rewatch it to know for sure, but the push he gave me down the front stretch taking the white was a key move to be able to do that. I think that was a big help. That was probably the biggest help of the whole thing.”

Blaney in 2012 and Logona in 2013, both came into the team just a year apart. Their decade-long comradery has been witnessed many times on the track. Logano agrees, “But you know Blaney has been a fantastic teammate we’ve worked together for years now. And it’s nice when we’ve, you know, for so many years we’ve talked about a lot of scenarios we’ve been through a lot of different scenarios at the end of these races.”

Blaney too was satisfied with a P3, having executed things smoothly on the track. “It’s a good day. I can’t really complain, I think it’s pretty much the most points you could score right there without winning. I’m just sure he (Logano) scored a ton today. So, yeah, just proud of the speed and effort by our group. We executed it perfectly.”

However, it doesn’t happen this smoothly every time. According to Logano, sometimes it works and sometimes it does. The Daytona 500 is enough proof of this.

It does not always work out this perfectly

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Logano, further in the conversation, said, “We’ve been through a lot of different scenarios at the end of these races. And uh you know some of them we’ve done really well like today and sometimes we’ve messed up. ” In the final laps of the Daytona 500, Logano was ahead of Blaney hoping for a push. Logano seemed in a position to pull off the win with less than 10 laps to go. He was expecting a push from Blaney, but before that on lap 191, Logano and Blaney were swept up in a huge multi-car crash that involved 22 cars. This time, things did not go as planned.

This was an unfortunate incident, but even on bad days, Logano and Blaney talk out their differences. “So the good thing is that we were able to talk about it all the time, um, you know, and be able to get better. And that’s just really what you want in a teammate um out there, so um you know it goes back and forth and sometimes you’re one in victory lane and sometimes you’re not.”

This healthy relationship is perhaps the reason for Penske’s success. After all, they are eyeing their third consecutive Cup Series title this year. Do you think they can get it? Let us know in the comments below.