Penske will not win 4th straight NASCAR Cup title

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Team Penske will not win a fourth straight NASCAR Cup Series championship after both Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano were eliminated Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.

A second-place finish for Ryan Blaney — the 2023 Cup champion — and an eighth-place finish for Joey Logano — the 2018, 2022 and 2024 champion — eliminated them from title contention after Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway.

Blaney had the best chance of the duo to keep the streak alive. He started 31st but drove into the top 10 in the first half of the 500-lap race. Pit strategy and speed ultimately allowed him to lead 177 laps but William Byron led 304 laps and didn’t relent.

In the closing laps, Byron bumped Blaney and survived a late-race restart to shut him and Penske out of the Championship 4.

It stinks. It stinks we don’t have a shot to go for four in a row for Roger. Roger was here tonight and was really wanting to see him in Victory Lane and celebrate it with him, but we just weren’t able to get it done and the championship streak at Penske ends. That’s the way it goes and we just have to re-rack and try to be better for next year. That’s all you can do,” Blaney said.

In contrast to Blaney, Joey Logano started strong and showed speed early on. Logano ran second to Byron until the race neared the halfway point. Drivers like Blaney and Christopher Bell started moving forward while Logano slid backward.

The rest of the race was pure push-and-pull for Logano and his No. 22 team.

Strategies moved Logano from the back half of the top 10 to third by lap 310. After started sliding backward for 57 laps, Logano pitted early on lap 376 to make up ground — but an ill-timed caution dropped him to 13th on lap 389. Logano made it back into the top 10 on lap 437 and was eighth on the final restart with 11 laps to go.

However, eighth was all he could manage at the finish.

Down went the two-time and defending Cup champion — feared by fans and competitors for his chances at a fourth title at Phoenix Raceway in a season where he hasn’t been one of the top drivers but excelled at the right time.

 “Bummed. I don’t know if there’s another word for it. I’m just bummed that one of us didn’t make it. Everyone works hard enough to deserve to be there. We just couldn’t get the job done today, or really the last three races. That’s what it comes down to. The four there deserve to be there. That’s how I always look at it and this year we didn’t deserve to be there,” Logano said.

Logano and Blaney have a strong chance of becoming the second driver in the last three season finale races to win the race without winning the championship. Ross Chastain won the season finale in 2023 but wasn’t eligible to win the championship, which Blaney won that year.