Blaney, Logano highlight Penske prowess at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano represented Team Penske well at Martinsville Speedway when Sunday’s race ended.

Blaney and Logano finished fifth and sixth. There was much more to the race than just that for the Penske-powered champions.

After Logano placed sixth in stage one, crew chief Paul Wolfe worked his magic. Wolfe called for two fresh tires, putting Logano ahead of a slew of drivers whose right-side tires were 86 laps newer than Logano’s.

Despite the difference in tires, Logano pulled away to as far as a one-second lead at one point. Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace passed Kyle Larson, who he ran behind in stage one, and ran second to Logano.

Denny Hamlin came roaring to life, passing Wallace and eventually Logano with 12 laps to go in the stage.

Logano placed fifth in stage two, netting a one-position gain with the strategy call.

Seeing what Logano did, Blaney’s crew chief Jonathan Hassler had an idea.

Blaney struggled with the handling in stage one and placed 12th. Then, before stage two began, his pit crew had an issue, placing him 20th in the stage.

For stage three, though, Blaney restarted ninth after Hassler put two fresh tires on Blaney’s car.

Like Logano, Blaney held onto his track position long enough to get to the final stop with around 100 laps to go. That set of tires clicked well with Blaney’s car as he jumped to fifth.

Amid all the bumper cars and craziness behind the leaders, Blaney held onto fifth in overtime.

“Jonathan made a good call to put two on it at the start of the third stage and we kind of established ourselves a little bit back in the top-10. We were able to work on our car again once we got a little clean air and seeing what the car was doing and how to get it better. After the green flag stop, I was really fast. I passed a handful of guys, I was kind of shocked. I held on pretty good but stalled out when I got to the 11. Overall, I am proud of the fight back from our group,” Blaney said.

Blaney didn’t get any stage points. However, he still earned the ninth-most points of any driver Sunday and is tied for fourth in the championship points standings.

Blaney is also in a playoff spot as of now with a 73-point cushion. Joining him in the playoffs for now is Joey Logano. After finishing sixth, Logano found himself in a playoff spot for the first time this season with a 3-point cushion.

“We led a bunch of laps. We got out front, but the tire came apart at the end of that stage there, which cost us a stage win, unfortunately. Still, we took that risk to do it and ended up in the same spot that we were going to be, so really no risk there. After that, we kind of lost control of the race, and once that happened, once you lost the lead, nobody was going to pass anybody. The only car I saw passing was the 12. That was pretty impressive. The rest of us just followed each other all day,” Logano said.

Both Logano and Blaney are still looking for their first win of 2024.