Welcome to our 2015 reviews. Instead of going driver-by-driver we’re going to review teams this year. We’re starting from the bottom of the standings and working our way up. Team Penske time.
Drivers (standings in parenthesis): Joey Logano (6th), Brad Keselowski (7th)
Highlights: Logano led the Sprint Cup Series in wins with sixth. His first was in the Daytona 500, when he held off Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr as the caution flag flew on the last lap.
He also won at Watkins Glen and Bristol in August and ran off five-straight top 10s before he had three-straight wins at Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega in the second round of the Chase. We’ll get to what happened next in the succeeding section because this is the section all about good things.
Logano’s 28 top-10 finishes were also tied for the most in the Cup Series. With four finishes of 30th or worse, that meant Logano finished outside the top 10 and didn’t have something catastrophic happen just four times. That’s some crazy excellence.
Keselowski won at Fontana in March with a last-lap pass. He took four tires while the leaders didn’t and passed Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick for the win at a track that’s become one of the most fun in the Cup Series.
While he had nine top-five finishes to Logano’s 22, Keselowski had 25 top-10 finishes. He also had just two finishes below 30th all season.
Lowlights: Martinsville in the fall. Need we say more?
Probably not, but we will. Keselowski’s race went sour first, as he was in an incident with Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch. The right front suspension of Keselowski’s car was mangled and he ended up finishing 32nd, 10 laps down. After failing to hold off Jimmie Johnson in a great battle at Texas, Keselowski went to Phoenix needing a win or for some bad finishes for other competitors to get to the final round of the Chase. He was ninth in the rain-shortened race.
Logano, as you know, got punted by Kenseth after the 2003 champion returned from the garage from his repairs from the crash with Keselowski. The retaliation was for a spin Kenseth had at Kansas when he and Logano were racing for the lead and Logano’s bumper hit Kenseth’s after Kenseth had previously blocked Logano.
The incident incited a discussion of what’s right and wrong in racing and if Logano and/or Kenseth crossed it. Logano became a villain – or at least something other than a hero – to many NASCAR fans who delighted in his early-race Texas issues. After being the best driver through the first 32 races – and Logano was on the way to a fourth-straight win in race No. 33 – Logano was out of the title hunt before the final round.
Overview: The Chase is and can be fluky. Its results aren’t necessarily indicative of the entirety of the Cup season. Just ask Team Penske.
Its drivers were two of the best of 2015. And neither got to the final round thanks to one bad race (OK, two in Logano’s case, but he was likely to win at Martinsville). But as Keselowski has said, the Chase isn’t fair. And everyone in NASCAR has to play by the same rules.
If Penske has the same level of success it did in 2015, it’s going to take something crazy (again) to keep one or both of its drivers out of the final round of the Chase. But that excellence is easier said than done. If there’s anyone that can keep it, it’s this team, especially now that it has a essentially third full-time car for data in the No. 21 of the Wood Brothers. Logano is going to win a title. It won’t be a surprise at all if Keselowski wins a second. A Penske title could happen in 2016. If it doesn’t, it won’t be too much longer.
Previous Reviews: Richard Childress Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, JTG-Daugherty Racing and Germain Racing, HScott Motorsports, Front Row Motorsports, BK Racing and Tommy Baldwin Racing.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
