“Here are the yellow cars with lower quality metrics, along the way, but the man does these guys how to do it when it matters.”
It was Joe Gibbs Racing The director of the competition Chris Gabehart in reference to Penske team After a truly dominant performance by the Ford Racing Flagship Sunday at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
This is particularly relevant because it is the compound and the right tire rules package that will decide the championship in November in Phoenix. The Penske team won the last three championships with Joey Logano And Ryan Blaney.
Logano won the post this weekend and Blaney won the race after pushing his teammates by satellite Josh Berry.
“The Carskered Cars were again completely untouchable,” said Gabehart. “I know what it is to be untouchable. We were lucky to be on the right side of that, but the reality is that we have a lot of work to do with this package and that is the goal. The rest is just noise.
“We have to get better.”
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Photo of: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
This is a revealing quote from the Director of the Competition, which had won three consecutive races to open the playoffs of the 2025 Cup series, but none of these races took place with the package that will be used in Phoenix either.
It is also a revealing result because Gibbs had also won the three races of the previous cut series in the New Hampshire using this car until Blaney breaks the sequence on Sunday.
“Massive accessories to the whole Penske team, Wood Brothers,” said Blaney. “We did an excellent job before this race and the preparation, throughout the weekend, of training, qualifying in the race. Our cars are very fast, as in the whole business. This is something they really should be proud.
“I’m just in the happy situation that I can drive a fast racing car. Yes, that says a lot about the hard work they have done, and I think that for us to run first, Josh to run second, was Joey third or fourth? Top five, victory on stage, it’s a great day.
And with that, Blaney is only a stage in the race for her second championship in three years and a third consecutive appearance Final Four. It is a relief from the team of Penske Nascar, Michael Nelson.
“My stress has been reduced by a third party,” said Nelson, laughing. “We have two others to try to participate here in the coming weeks.
“It goes a long way. It’s really good to see this team winning the victory. They had a fastest car here recently.
This is particularly true given the unpredictability of the final race for this Tour, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
And the reality that Gibbs will not let think either.
“It’s going to be difficult,” said Gabehart. “They are really good. They have a winning pedigree of the championship which dates back to decades for the same reason as Hendrick Motorsports Go be hard. It’s really a pedigree. So, with regard to the end -of -race eliminatory series season, we will all be difficult. »»
Grid of the playoffs
Ryan Blaney Adv
Kyle Larson +47
Christopher Bell +29
Denny Hamlin +27
Joey Logano +24
Chase Elliott +14
Chase Briscoe +12
–
Ross Chastain -12
Austin Cindric -19
Tyler Reddick -23
Bubba Wallace -27
The game has changed
Suddenly, Carskered cars have come to life and 23XI Racing went in the other direction. Even Hendrick cars, which sometimes had trouble in the first round, each had really solid projections on Sunday.
The dynamics turned out from the first round.
Chase Briscoe won the Southern 500 and was immediately locked in the second round, but leaves this first race on the bubble because it did not score any scene alongside a top 10.
This is how fast things can change in this format.
“It was not a great day for us,” said Briscoe. “On the race track, we have never really had any problems, but on Pit Road, we continued to lose positions. Just difficult to do this in the playoffs and not sacrifice a finish because of this. I thought our car was fine. We certainly had nothing for the Carsieke cars.
“What is positive is that we are above the cup line. It was the objective of today and we were able to do it. We are going to go to Kansas where I have the impression that our car should be much better and I hope to capitalize there there.”
Bubba Wallace, 23xi Racing Toyota; Riley Herbst, 23xi Racing Toyota
Photo of: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images
Meanwhile, the Toyotas 23X Racing led by Tyler Reddick And Bubba Wallacewere nowhere near the figurative stadium with 21st and 26th finishes.
“Just a lack all around,” said Wallace. “We couldn’t really seem to get things done. Our best race lasted five laps, caution came out and then it was not back. I hate that. I felt really optimistic and walked at first and it never really went anywhere.
“In a way, we have platforms in the 5th round and that was everything. I hate it. It’s just a head of head. I told our team that we were much better than that. We know it. As much punch as this one, we will move on. This is what we have to do. “
Reddick fought a rigid brake pedal at the start of the race, but simply had no speed.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect that, that’s for sure,” said Reddick. “The way the race started, I thought we could run (inside) the top-10 all day, but between the braking problems we had, he just run away.
“The balance has disappeared, then, the next thing I know that we are trying to fight for the 20th, so it was only a terrible day.”
For all the speeches on the domination of Penske, this performance did not extend to Austin CindricFor reasons that he could not understand immediately after the race either.
“Yeah, I mean it’s a great question,” said Cindric. “I can only talk about myself, but I had a very high speed in the long term, but I never had the impression of being able to capitalize on it and rush my knees in qualifying, which made us go back, and you have to restart and I had trouble with that.
“My guys have launched the car a lot today and it’s just a shame. Several other pilots in playoffs could not get stage points and that keeps us hunting but not the day we wanted.”
What now?
Cindric, Reddick and Wallace are in an increasingly difficult location to save lucky breaks in the next two weeks.
Admittedly, if the three take place as they did the last lap, it is not insurmountable, but the obstacle to abandon a race in this round of three races is that they will now need Penske, Hendrick and Gibbs failling or having a problem.
Luck is not a strategy as they say.
“I want it to be easy to say” to move on “but that is not the case,” said Wallace. “We are a better team than that.”
So can they prove it to Kansas where he won in 2023?
“I guess we will see.”
Reddick was as discouraged as his teammate.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s fair, we had trouble all year round.”
Cindric, faithful to the character, was the most optimistic.
“Kansas is a place where we have a lot of potential and I can’t wait to do so.”
And Kansas is so important because no one wants to go to the Charlotte Roval, feeling that they had to get there.
“One week at a time,” said Cindric. “Let’s go there first.”
Berry impressions
The playoffs are a story of what could have been for Josh Berry and the first race after his elimination was a story of what could have been too.
It was not a lack of performance or speed that eliminated the Wood Brothers Racing N ° 21 in the first round. Berry made an error in the interior of the top 5 on a low air pressure at the start of the 500 south, was crushed by Chase Elliott in Gateway, then caught fire in Bristol.
How did he react in the next round? Well, he was again involved in an early incident of the Top 10, but also rebounded to defeat almost black on the older tires of New Hampshire.
Berry was marked by Shane Van Gisbergen 82.
Josh Berry, Wood Brothers Racing Ford, Shane Van Gisbergen, Ro Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Photo of: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images
“These things happen here all the time – and it’s a choice,” said Berry. “It is a choice for a restart, that you go to leave your front right in there and destroy it or that you will live to fight another day.
“On all these restarts, there is a choice after the choice after the choice. Even if I fell a little, I cut him off a lot of breaks during the year. I just lived another tour – 200 years ago to do. ”
Berry rebounded in the 10th in the second stage and did not highlight when the final warning agitated. He inherited the head but was quickly passed through Blaney on fresher tires on the right by only nine laps.
“I mean obviously, he had the two tires and those that were a little better,” said Berry. “We had a little trouble shooting the restarts. He was able to get around us there, but it seemed that I was going to run towards him.”
Berry arrived at the bumper several times but slipped the track and had to settle for second place.
“It’s fair, it’s a battle there,” he said. “We both slipped and slipped and, obviously, looks pure helped a lot. He was able to play in defense when I got closer enough, then I slipped. Overall, it was a fun battle and Ryan is an excellent racing car driver. I have a ton of respect for him. And if I couldn’t do it, I’m glad it was him. ”
It was a day that would have made him a legitimate championship threat without everything that went wrong in the first round.
