In just seven weeks, Team Penske has gone from being winless in the NASCAR Cup Series to having four victories between the organization's three full-time competitors.
Ryan Blaney, the defending champion of the NASCAR Cup Series, earned his 12th victory at NASCAR's top level in Sunday's The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway.
The 30-year-old driver wasn't much of a factor throughout the opening two-thirds of the event, but crew chief Jonathan Hassler got the No. 12 Wabash Ford Mustang Dark Horse the track position needed to secure the victory.
For Hassler, it was a two-tire strategy call with 44 laps remaining in the event, that jumped him to second place, behind Kyle Larson, who would subsequently be busted for speeding on pit road.
Blaney would then be successful in holding back both Denny Hamlin and Alex Bowman in the final laps of Sunday's 160-lap contest, defending against the Chicago Street Course winner on four different restarts in the final 40 laps.
"I think just things are kind of falling into place with us, I think we've gotten to a great place with speed -- the last two months especially. I feel like we honestly had a couple of races slip away from us that we had a good shot of winning," said Blaney. "So it was nice to just stick to the plan today and kind of our plan was to have track position at the end because I knew our car was fast enough, super proud of Jonathan [Hassler] and all the No. 12 boys."
"So cool to win here again, I won here seven years ago for my first [NASCAR Cup Series] win, so awesome to be back. The crowd, you guys are amazing, thank you so much for being here all weekend," he added.
Denny Hamlin finished runner-up to Blaney, after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver made an insane rally in the final five laps to close a gap of nearly three seconds in half, crossing th start-finish line 1.312 seconds behind Blaney.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron came home in third and fourth place, while Joey Logano, a teammate to Ryan Blaney in the Team Penske stable, rounded out the top five.
Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex, Jr., Chase Elliott, and Bubba Wallace completed the top-10 in the finishing order for the 21st NASCAR Cup Series event of 2024.
After winning his second career pole on Saturday, and leading 21 laps (third most behind Blaney and Denny Hamlin), Ty Gibbs failed to finish Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series event at Pocono Raceway, after his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE suffered a blown engine, leaking fluid on the racetrack and drawing the final caution of the afternoon. Gibbs would finish 26th.
The biggest incident of the afternoon, though, involved Kyle Busch, who has now recorded his fifth DNF in the last seven NASCAR Cup Series events. Busch struggled with his racecar all afternoon, before getting hooked by Corey LaJoie, which in the process, destroyed the afternoons of at least five other drivers.
Busch would be credited with a 32nd-place finish, while LaJoie on the other hand, would live to see another lap, bringing home a 19th-place result. Harrison Burton, Ryan Preece, and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. were forced to retire, as well, finishing outside the top-30.
While that would be the biggest crash of the afternoon, Ross Chastain wrecking before the conclusion of the race's second stage played a major impact on the Playoff cutline, after the No. 1 finished a dismal 36th, his third straight finish outside the top-20.
Leaving Pocono and heading to the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott holds a three-point advantage over Kyle Larson in the regular-season point standings, with Tyler Reddick closing rapidly in third, now just 15 points behind.
Photo Credit: Matthew T. Thacker, NKP for Ford Performance
