Yahoo Autos Penske’s Perfect Plan at Atlanta
Roger Penske’s instructions to his drivers before a race is to make sure they don’t eliminate each other, and that one of them hoists the trophy in victory lane.
In Sunday’s inaugural playoff race for the NASCAR Cup Series, the final laps came down to teammates vs. teammates – Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney vs. Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain.
Blaney has always been known as a good pusher in superspeedway style racing and even though his Ford incurred damage in a lap 205 crash, he still provided the push Logano needed to secure the Quaker State 400 victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
With 10 laps remaining in the scheduled 260-lap race, Blaney was pushing Logano and Suarez had Chastain shoving him. Then on lap 259, Harrison Burton and Noah Gragson collided on the backstretch to bring out the seventh yellow flag.
When the field lined up for the overtime restart, Logano picked the inside lane due to spotter Coleman Pressley’s recommendation. Blaney dropped to the inside so he could shove Logano. Completing the top five on the inside line were Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch. On the outside line were Suarez, Chastain, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs.
On the final lap, Blaney shoved Logano down the backstretch and was then able to reconnect in the third and fourth turns, while Chastain misjudged his push of Suarez and was never able to reconnect. That cost Suarez his chance at victory.
“We got a great launch, but we got disconnected too early. That obviously hurt us,” Suarez said. “A little painful. I feel like we were in position. Sometimes it’s very difficult to predict who is going to get the best push, for how long you’re going to get it. It’s part of the game. I don’t feel really good right now.”
In addition to Team Penske finishing first and second, Austin Cindric emerged as the race’s top lap leader, setting the pace on three occasions for 92 laps before settling for a 10th-place finish.
While Logano’s victory advances him into the Round of 12, Blaney now leads the point standings and Cindric is seventh.
Before beginning the post-race press conference, Team Penske Vice Chairman Walt Czarnecki dedicated Logano’s victory to Roy McCauley, a 20-year Team Penske employee who died unexpectedly Aug. 13.
McCauley began his career with Penske, serving as technical director from 2003 to 2005. He was Ryan Newman’s crew chief in 2005 when he won six of nine Busch Series (now Xfinity) races. In 2006, McCauley was Kurt Busch’s crew chief when the No. 2 team won the Bristol March race. After a short hiatus in 2007, McCauley returned to the Cup Series pit box and in 2008 he and Newman delivered Team Penske its first Daytona 500 victory. McCauley transitioned into the role of assembly group manager in 2010. He worked to centralize the team's assembly activity into one group and led special projects as needed.
