Folks, isn’t it surprising that we are nine races into the season and Team Penske is yet to win a single race? No one has been able to beat them in the Next-Gen era. Ever since the car debuted in 2022, Roger Penske’s men have always won the Cup title. But in 2025, they haven’t yet started winning, and this is a season where even Penske’s ‘satellite team’, Wood Brothers Racing, has a win. And what’s surprising is defending champion Joey Logano’s performance. However, one NASCAR veteran has warned the field not to count him out just yet!
Which is true, this is how Joey Logano ran the 2024 season. If you recall, six races into the season, he only had one top 10 finish. And then, in the whole regular season, he only won once in a quintuple overtime race at Nashville, with just 4 top 5s. No one would have thought that Joey Logano would go on to win the championship. We know he had the worst average finish for a champion ever (17.1). Despite that, a championship is a championship! And who knows, even this year might unfold the same story.
Kyle Petty is confident in Joey Logano’s ability
If you look at the 2025 season so far, Logano is 9th in the points standings, and he’s not even managed to get a single top 5 finish. Forget top-5, the #22 driver has just one top-10, in the nine races, when he finished 8th in Martinsville. While these stats aren’t suitable for a champion, it’s worth noting that Logano’s shown speed this year. He led 43 laps in the Daytona 500 but got a DNF, led 83 in Atlanta, but stayed out of the top 10. Again led 81 in Phoenix, but still finished 13th. He got a P15 in Vegas after leading 40 laps in the race.
The point is that Joey Logano has consistently failed to finish good starts. And that’s worrisome, as it’s been the case with all Penske drivers. Ryan Blaney has led 198 laps so far in the season but is still winless. Austin Cindric has led 159 laps, but he sits in the 20th position. However, Kyle Petty thinks there is no reason to be alarmed! In an interview with ‘NASCAR Daily,’ he said, “I don’t think so (that there is reason for concern). I don’t, because… I see Blaney running great. I’ve seen glimpses with [Austin] Cindric, and we’ve seen glimpses with Joey [Logano]. Let’s go back to Daytona, let’s go back to Atlanta, let’s go back to some of the early races. We saw something in this car.”
And Petty touched upon the same points of them lacking the finishes. Look at Logano’s stats. He’s not got much into the top 10, but in six out of the nine races, he has finished in the top 15. And it may only be a matter of time before he starts finishing in the top 10. And according to Petty, Logano’s a driver who can never be counted out. He’s got the ability to bounce back at will. “I don’t worry about Joey Logano. Joey Logano will go down in history as one of the greatest race car drivers to ever sit in the seat of a race car. He is focused, he is determined, and he does not let bad weeks like this get in his head. He goes to the next week, it’s a clean slate. He’s ready to go again,” Petty added.
Logano is a three-time champion, and you can never count such drivers out of contention, according to Petty. However, the only thing working against Logano is his ‘even year magic’! Logano’s championships have all come in even-numbered years: 2018, 2022, and 2024. What’s even more shocking is that ever since the playoff format was introduced in 2014, Logano has made the championship four in every even-numbered year, from 2014 to 2024! So, 2025 might not ‘numerically’ spell the sweetest success for the #22, but we’re sure he would be hoping to break this streak as well.
Also, while Kyle Petty is all confident about Team Penske and Joey Logano, another veteran disagrees.
Jeff Burton’s concerns for Logano and Co. in 2025
No one in the NASCAR community has a clear answer for Joey Logano’s performance so far. But Jeff Burton thinks something’s off. “Something with the 22 [Logano and his team] doesn’t feel right. I know that duo. I know how good they are. We all know how good they are. I don’t know, I just feel like something’s not…it’s not all there right now.” And it’s not like it’s the car and not Logano.
The Ford Mustang doesn’t seem to be the problem. Look at how Josh Berry won Las Vegas, and ironically, his #21 Ford has been developed in Team Penske’s shop. And Blaney’s shown great performances, he’s got three top 5s so far and was positioned for a win at Darlington if not for a late race caution triggered by Kyle Larson. Since the Daytona 500, 7 Fords have finished in the top 5! So clearly, it’s not the car, like it was in the first half of the 2024 season.
Anyway, this has kind of become Logano’s style. He only bags wins when it is absolutely necessary. Like in the last season, he got one win in the regular season, which put him in the playoffs. Then he won the playoffs opener, Atlanta and reached the next round. Then he stayed in contention in the next round, when Alex Bowman got a DQ at the ROVAL, Logano swooped in to get to the top 8. And again, won the Vegas race to make it to the championship 4. And finally won the Phoenix finale and the championship. 4 wins for the season, 3 coming in the last 10 races, when it matters the most. Isn’t that what we commonly refer to as being ‘clutch’?
Jeff Burton thinks the 2025 season could unfold in the same way. “I feel like they have more speed at this point in the year than they have been having because they get hot at the end of the year, and they win those championships. Here’s where I am on Team Penske. I’m gonna wait, I’ll tell you when Phoenix [the championship race] is over because they’ve proven to me I can’t trust them in the regular season. I gotta wait until they get to the playoffs, they’ve just been so spectacular in the playoffs.”
What do you think, folks? When will Team Penske start winning races this season? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
The post NASCAR Veteran Backs Reigning Champion Joey Logano Despite His Horror Start to the Odd Year appeared first on EssentiallySports.
