“We’re still in it. We still have a chance…” 47 points below the cut-line with two races to go before the trip to Phoenix, Ryan Blaney said this. No driver had ever made it to the Championship 4 being more than 20 points below the cut-line after the first Round of 8 race. Enter Team Penske’s #12. Blaney finished 2nd or higher in the next three races, on his way to a podium finish in the 2024 Championship. So how does Penske do it?

While the playoff system surely has its flaws, it’s hard to look past the greatness of their drivers under pressure. Blaney would have been heartbroken after a last-lap overtake from Tyler Reddick at Homestead put yet another dagger in his heart. However, the master of ‘The Paperclip’ dominated Martinsville and took home the grandfather clock, along with a chance to defend his title.

In a conversation with Beating and Banging, Blaney opened up on the Penske mentality and why their drivers seem to go on a tear to end the season. For context, the 2024 playoffs saw 3 wins from Joey Logano and 1 from Blaney, and the duo combined for 7 podium finishes. Blaney spoke about the insinuation and cleared the air behind this trend in performance. According to him, the slow start is not deliberate and the primary aim is to win, but sometimes things don’t work out that way.

Ryan Blaney wants to win every race

Last weekend, Blaney finished 2nd behind Chase Elliott at the Clash at Bowman Gray. While it wasn’t a win, it was a statement to the rest of the grid. Blaney drove his car from 23rd at ‘The Madhouse’ to secure a podium finish and was arguably the best driver on the night. So is Team Penske just saving their prowess for the end of the season?

Blaney told Beating and Banging, “Yeah, it’s not like we plan on doing that. We want to win every week, but I think the biggest thing I look at. The last two years, maybe we don’t get started off the best that we want to be. We’re a little behind and we get to where we want to be. That’s the way that motorsports is, that’s the way sports are. You can fire off hot and cool off or you can get better through the year.”

In 2024, it wasn’t until June 2 at the Enjoy Illinois 300 that Team Penske drove to victory lane, and it wasn’t even their championship drivers. Austin Cindric got their first win of the campaign while Logano finished fifth and Blaney 24th. Two weeks later Ryan Blaney won at Iowa, and another two weeks later, Logano took a quintuple overtime win at Nashville. When it rains, it pours for Penske.

While turning it on in the middle of the season and carrying that momentum to the end is spectacular, Blaney wants consistency. However, he is also aware that cooling off right before the playoffs is way worse than having a poor start. Blaney added, “That’s the way it’s gone and I’d rather be that way than cool off through the year. I think it just shows the determination of this group, even if you’re not where you want to be early, we’re going to get there. Obviously, I’d like to be like that all year, but it’s the ways of this sport. It’s ups and downs and it’s about being on the up part at the right time.”

Speaking of cooling off after a hot start, if there is any team that embodied that sentiment in 2024, it was Joe Gibbs Racing. By the middle of March, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin had already secured a win each, and Hamlin would go on to win a further two races by the end of April. It was supposed to be cruise control for JGR after that, but turbulence shook up their team. Following Bell’s win in New Hampshire in June, JGR failed to win a single race for the rest of the season. None of their drivers made the Championship 4 for the first time since the playoff format was introduced. Did Team Penske find a sweeter recipe for success? Or is it all down to NASCAR’s playoff system?

Is it easy to ace the playoff format?

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The Team Penske method of winning over the last few years is perfectly aligned with how the playoff system operates. Win merely once in the regular season and you’re in. Win too early and you might lose steam toward the end. Leave it too late and you might never get the win. Penske found the sweet spot by winning in June and then 40% of all playoff races. Understandably, fans were frustrated by this. How can a team so consistently just be better than everyone in the playoffs while looking like minnows during the regular season?

The 2024 Cup Series Champion had an average finish of 17.5. Kyle Larson won six races and didn’t even make the Championship 4. While this criticism might be valid, Joey Logano would be the first to tell you, “I can’t hear it because my trophies, they kind of, like, echo around me.” Jokes aside, Logano may have a point. At the end of the day, it is about playing by the rules, be it any sport in the world. In NASCAR today, the rules are simple: win and you’re in.

Gone are the days when Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart fought tooth and nail in the ‘Chase’ format for the 2011 championship. The duo were tied on points at the end of the campaign and the tie-breaker to decide the trophy was… wins! The value of winning multiple races has been lost, and that’s what is hurting the playoff system the most. We won’t hear quotes like Stewart telling Edwards in 2011, “He better be worried. That’s all I’ve got to say. He’s not going to sleep for the next three weeks.” In the current playoff format, you just gotta stay awake for one week, and wake up when the next round starts! What do you think? Does the playoff system need a revamp? Or does everyone need to start doing it the Penske way?