Team Penske did something in 2022 that it hadn't done since team formed in 1967.
- Since 1967, Team Penske has been multiple champions in seven years.
- In three of those seasons, Penske won three championships—either an IndyCar championship, NASCAR Xfinity drivers’ and owners’ championships, Australian Supercars championship, or NASCAR Cup Series.
- However, never IndyCar and Cup at the same time, not until this year.
For more than three decades—beginning with Rusty Wallace in 1991—team owner Roger Penske had longed to hold America’s two most treasured motorsports trophies at the same time. During those years, leading into 2022, Team Penske won 16 IndyCar titles and two NASCAR Cup Series titles.
Alas, but never in the same year … until last weekend at Phoenix Raceway. There, in a 312-mile race that was never seriously in doubt, Joey Logano won his second NASCAR Cup Series title and the third for Team Penske.
“I think we’ve tried it for 31 years, so it’s about time,” the multi-series Hall of Fame owner said Sunday night. “Winning a championship, no matter what it’s in (regarding the new Next Gen car), is pretty special. Obviously, to win the first race (with Logano) at the LA Coliseum and then cap it off (in Phoenix) is pretty amazing.”
Roger Penske’s teams won both the IndyCar and NASCAR Cup championships this season.
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The Captain’s first NASCAR title came in a Dodge with Brad Keselowski in 2012. Ryan Hunter-Reay won that year’s IndyCar title with Andretti Autosport. When Logano delivered Penske’s second NASCAR title in 2018 in a Ford, Scott Dixon of Ganassi Racing was the IndyCar champion.
This year, when Will Power gave Team Penske its 17th IndyCar title, Logano finally gave Penske his third in NASCAR.
Long-time Penske lieutenant Walt Czarnecki did his homework in the days before Championship 4 weekend. He had enough stats to make an accountant swoon.
“Since 1967, we’ve been multiple champions in seven years,” Czarnecki pointed out. “In three of those seasons, we won three championships. It was either an IndyCar championship, NASCAR Xfinity drivers’ and owners’ championships, Australian Supercars championship, or NASCAR Cup Series. But never IndyCar and Cup at the same time, not until this year.”
Cup Rookie of the Year Austin Cindric opened this season giving Team Penske its third Daytona 500 victory on the boss’ 85th birthday. Cindric didn’t win again, but still made a brief appearance in the Playoffs. Teammate Ryan Blaney probably gave Penske plenty of sleepless nights by running well at time, but going an unacceptable 0-for-36.
Logano wasn’t always great, but he was good enough to roll through the Playoffs and win the Championship 4 race in something of a runaway over Blaney. He won the pre-season exhibition in the LA Coliseum and points races at Darlington, St. Louis, Las Vegas, and the finale at Phoenix. The victory at Phoenix marked the ninth consecutive year a Championship 4 driver won the Cup by winning the last race.
Will Power’s IndyCar championship brought team owner Roger Penske the first leg of the IndyCar/NASCAR Cup double.
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For Logano—now the second active multi-time NASCAR champion alongside fellow two-timer Kyle Busch–two really isn’t enough. “I guess the greed in me feels like I should have four or five (Cups) at the moment,” he said. “I guess the feeling is that’s it’s about time. But I guess that’s just how I am, how I work. Once you win one of these things you want to win another one even worse.”
Team Penske now has 135 Cup Series victories (and, oddly, 135 poles) on his 2,310-start NASCAR resume. He began modestly enough, with a one-off in 1972 as Donnie Allison finished third at Riverside in a Matador. Since then, his stock car program has almost always brought a quality effort to the track.
“During the season, we weren’t quite as competitive as we wanted to be, as we got to know the (new Next Gen) car,” he acknowledged. “This teamwork we talk about made a big difference. It’s certainly special, winning the first race with the car and winning the championship. So, that (winning in LA and Daytona Beach early in the season) was a good omen for us.
“Joey did a great job. You’ve seen what he’s been able to do as he’s come on the team, and for us to have two championships in the same year … that’s what we’re here for. That’s the goal we have every year. We’ve been close, but we got it this year.”
Wisely, he dared not rank that long-sought achievement against his company’s others milestones, even his unprecedented 18 Indy 500 victories. “I hate to say one is better than the other,” he said after the Phoenix victory. “I’d have to say, put them all together; they’re all first-place as far as I’m concerned.
“What it does as a team, the momentum it gives not only the race team, but the 70,000 people in our company. They’re all watching. We don’t win every day, but it teaches us how to win and how to stay in the game.”
Logano went to Team Penske in 2013 after five poor years at Joe Gibbs Racing. He came into NASCAR as “Sliced Bread,” as in “this kid from Connecticut is the greatest thing since…” He won two Cup Series races and 18 Xfinity Series races before Gibbs cut him after 2012 to make room for Matt Kenseth. Compare those two victories in 121 starts for Gibbs (2008-2012) with three victories in his first 45 starts and 16 in his first five years with Penske.
“He came with us 10 years ago, and it’s hard to believe that,” Penske said of the cinch future Hall of Famer. “There was a lot of discussion about whether that was the right move. I thank (former Team Penske driver) Brad Keselowski who talked to me about Joey and made the opportunity for me to meet him. He’s come on. You’ve seen his success. The number of races he’s won for us (31) has been amazing.
“I said to Joey at the beginning of the year that with Brad leaving and he (Logano) being the senior guy, he should put his arms around the whole team. We’re a lot more transparent as a group. They certainly worked together coming to Phoenix this weekend. All the cars were competitive because they all went on the same setup. They had a practice to see what was best, and we loaded that same setup on the cars.”
Appropriately, Logano gets the last word, and it’s about the late Coy Gibbs: “(His death) just goes to prove that you’ve got to cherish every moment because you don’t know when your number is called. We always say God has a plan and I agree with that … but it doesn’t make it easier.”
Keyword: How Joey Logano's NASCAR Cup Championship Was Historic First for Roger Penske