By Matt Crider, Staff Writer
FORT WORTH, Texas — Team Penske drivers have won the last three NASCAR Cup Series championships, but they didn’t find Victory Lane in 2025 until the 10th race of the season, last week at Talladega. After Sunday’s showing at Texas Motor Speedway, Penske is in a much more comfortable position.
Defending champion Joey Logano picked up his first win of the year in the Wurth 400 and teammate Ryan Blaney finished third, capitalizing on performance that the organization’s three cars have had throughout the season.
Austin Cindric, the Talladega winner, led three times for 60 laps at TMS before getting caught up in a late crash involving Brad Keselowski.
“We’ve had speed all year,” Blaney said. “It was nice that the last couple weeks we’ve gotten a car in victory lane, so that’s good. Hopefully we can join ’em.”
Blaney was on the front row for the final three restarts, but Logano pulled ahead in the No. 22 Ford and sailed to the overtime victory.
“It’s whoever gets the lead, it doesn’t matter,” Blaney said. “I didn’t do a great job on the restarts. I didn’t pick the right lane a couple of times. I just didn’t do anything right, didn’t have a shot to win and never got the lead — and that’s how you win the race.
“I didn’t take the front row one time and [Michael McDowell] got the lead because I didn’t think the top was very good at all. It was pretty dirty, and the one time I have a shot to do it and don’t do it, the guy gets the lead. So I just didn’t do a good job and then it was hard to get it after that — didn’t get a good push and just could never hang with them over in [Turns] 3 and 4.”
Each Penske driver has led the most laps in a race this season.
“Team Penske had brought good, competitive cars for the first 11 races,” Executive Vice President Walt Czarnecki said. “We’ve been in the hunt in every one of them. We’ve qualified very well and had the chance to win some other races, now two in a row. I hope that’s a real momentum builder for us. … Blaney’s time is coming too.”
Crew chief Paul Wolfe directed Logano to his first top-five finish and second top-10 of the year, and he talked about Penske’s strength.
“Blaney surely could have won multiple races, and I really appreciate that relationship we have amongst our team, specifically the 12 — we work very closely together,” Wolfe said. “And it’s kind of ironic how at the end of the race we were racing [Blaney] for the win today.”
Blaney’s fourth top-five result was his best of the season.
“We really didn’t do it with strategy; we just kind of passed cars,” Blaney said. “I thought our car was really good, and I just couldn’t get control of the race. But overall — proud day, fast car.
“Driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job, so I appreciate the 12 car was a fast car. Just can’t do anything right currently, so hopefully it will work itself out.”
Logano earned his 37th career victory and second in Fort Worth.
“The sport changes so quickly. It is crazy how you can just ride these roller coasters. I am so proud of the team,” Logano said. “A couple of times we had a really tough pit stall situation, and the pit crew did a good job of managing that. We just grabbed a couple [positions] here and there. The car was fast — I knew that yesterday. I just did a poor job qualifying. We just were grinding it out, a couple here and a couple there and eventually we get the win. It is nice to get one — really nice.”
Cindric won Stage 1 and finished 25th, three laps down.