Folks, what’s surprising about the 2025 season is that NASCAR’s most successful team in the Next-Gen era hasn’t won a single race yet! Well, Ryan Blaney almost won Darlington, but in the end, the race gods weren’t in his favor. The final restart triggered by a Kyle Larson spin in the race reduced his race lead to P5 after a slow pit stop. Well, after the ‘track too tough to tame,’ NASCAR landed at Bristol Motor Speedway, and here, the #12 team tried something unusual in an attempt to win the race. But the result was yet again a P5.

And well, Darlington cannot be counted as the #12 team’s fault. Had Bubba Wallace not accidentally bumped Kyle Larson in the end, Blaney would have cruised to his first win for the season. And Blaney’s car was the fastest on the long runs, so it’s unlikely anyone would have caught him. But not at Bristol. At no point in the race did they look like a contender to win. That’s probably why the #12’s crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, made a plan.

Ryan Blaney believed in his crew chief at Bristol

So, Blaney and Bristol haven’t exactly been a love story. He’s got a 17.8 average finish there. And out of the 17 races he has run so far, only 3 have been top 5 finishes. Entering the 2025 Food City 500, he wasn’t the top contender to win, even though he had a P5 start. Well, how could he when the track’s past winners and most successful drivers, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, were starting above him? Larson in P3 and Hamlin in P4.

But still, Blaney wanted to have a shot at it. And it wasn’t off to a good start; rather than gaining positions, he actually dropped some, ending stage one in P7 and then P8 in stage two. Then came the gamble in the final stages of the race. When all the leaders pitted, Blaney stayed out and cycled to the race lead on lap 392 under green flag conditions. He continued to stay on track for 48 laps before coming to the pit road. All this while they were hoping for a caution! At lap 427, Blaney was the only car on the lead lap. But eventually, he had to pit. The 200+ lap of green flag racing is what worked against Blaney, ironically, as it was a caution that hindered him last race!

Ryan Blaney, speaking on this move post the race, said, “We took a shot of running long. Hoping to catch a caution with a bunch of guys lap down. Or the whole field a lap down. Didn’t catch the caution, but it was a good call by Jonathan. I thought that was kind of our only shot to win. I was running 5th before the cycle started, so I kind of netted out where I was at.” Well, what worked for the #12 car was that the gamble did not bite them in the face. When everyone was pitting, Blaney was 5th; had he pitted back then, he would have come out at the same position. And even after pitting late, he still managed to climb back to 5th. So, it was a no loss, no gain move.

And even Jonathan Hassler spoke about the intention behind the move. He said, “I didn’t think we were gonna drive past the #5 [Kyle Larson] on our own. And the tires weren’t falling off a whole lot. So we could run and not really pay a huge penalty. And I thought that gave us the opportunity to, you know, we can catch a caution while all these guys are a lap down. That’s great for us…so had a couple different things working for us had we caught a caution at the right time.”

Still, Blaney thought it was a good attempt by his crew chief to take a shot at the win. “At the end of the race, we were better, had 3rd and 4th in front of me. It was a good call, praying for a break, but did not get one. Had a good day and, good finish. The last couple of weeks, solid racing with nothing crazy happening. That’s nice,” Blaney added.

At least this move gave him a chance to lead the race for some time, get some clean air for a couple of laps. Which had been impossible for anyone else to get, other than Kyle Larson. The race only saw 4 lead changes, with more than half the field being a lap down by the end of the race as Larson led 411 out of the 500. Meanwhile, the other Penske drivers continued to have a disappointing season!

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Team Penske is struggling in 2025!

Look, we are nine races into the season and among the three top dogs of NASCAR. Team Penske is the only one left winless so far. Both Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing have racked up multiple wins. Penske are the three-time consecutive champions who are lacking. Well, Ryan Blaney is the only one among the lot who is pulling out an occasional top 5. Putting him in the 6th place in the points standing.

Meanwhile, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric haven’t bagged a single top-5 yet. And forget top five; the defending Cup Series champion has just one top 10. Logano’s currently in P9, and Cindric is struggling the most, being in the 20th position. Bristol was no different for them. Cindric started in P21 but did not have the pace to climb up, and with very little tire fall off, track position was crucial.

Eventually, Cindric ended up in 17th place! Speaking on his run, he said, “With a lot of unknowns going into today with the tires, I felt we adapted pretty quickly in the first stage. We made up some spots and stayed on the lead lap. I think being able to recover from having to pit twice there after the pit stop and kind of come back up through the back and get a decent finish.”

The tire situation was a mystery for all heading into the race. The spring race in 2024 saw 54 lead changes and massive tire falloff that led Goodyear to send out an extra batch just to finish the race! However, the fall race saw Larson lead 400 laps to the win, and the same transpired on Sunday. However, after a practice session on Saturday, teams felt the falloff would be more like last spring, as the tires were wearing after about 40 laps. All this changed when track temperatures warmed up on Sunday, as the practice on Saturday was right after the Xfinity Series race, and Goodyear’s tires were not soft enough for frequent passing. However, this doesn’t excuse Penske’s lack of performance, certainly not Joey Logano’s.

Logano started the race in P38 (second to last); it’s a miracle he could climb up to 24th. Still, he was left disappointed for not having the pace all day. “Tough day overall for us with having to fight for track position all day. The long runs didn’t fall in our favor and forced us to take a shot with the wave around at the end of Stage 2. We’ll reset in the off-week and look ahead to Talladega.”

Well, Penske cars are good at superspeedways, so maybe they can bounce back in the next race. What do you think, folks? Do you think a Penske driver has a shot at winning the upcoming Talladega race? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.