Teamwork leading to Chase success at Team Penske
Less than a year ago, the Penske organization was renamed from Penske Racing to Team Penske, and you know what? That's absolutely what I saw Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway between Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano: Two drivers, two cars, one team.
We know why some NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams have three cars and four cars, but when you have two teams like Team Penske has, and two drivers like Brad and Joey, you sure can make it work a lot better. Joey is a big reason that Brad is in this Chase and still in it. Joey and Brad worked great together at Talladega, and Joey was a perfect teammate in the race.
Joey knows he's going to have to race his teammate for this championship. I'm sure he would much rather be racing Kasey Kahne for the next four weeks versus Brad Keselowski. Not saying Kahne isn't a championship contender, but let's face it, Kasey has won one race this year and Brad has won six.
For Team Penske to get both of its drivers in the Chase and to win 11 of the first 32 races is very impressive. I think that's been lost in the shuffle. Last year, we talked a lot about Joe Gibbs Racing winning 12 of 36 races, and that was with three drivers. Team Penske has won 11 with just two drivers.
There's no doubt that both Joey and Brad are going to be players in this championship. When I filled out my Chase Grid out weeks ago, I had both those guys going to the championship race at Homestead as two of the four finalists. They are going to be tough to beat.
One the other hand, Talladega was a brutal race for Hendrick Motorsports, with having four possible drivers advancing to the Chase but knowing two of them were well outside the box of eight. Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. needed to win at Talladega to advance in the Chase, but to go from having four cars in the round of 12 to having three of the four Hendrick drivers eliminated is a pretty huge blow.
But I still believe Jeff Gordon is still going to be an absolute solid player in this championship. He's another driver I had going to the championship round at Homestead. And let's face it, we are headed to Martinsville, where he is so good.
For the Eliminator Round, I think whoever the players are going to be in the final round, it's important that they get off to a good start at Martinsville. With three races in the Eliminator Round, that means at least one driver is guaranteed to move ahead to the championship round based on points, so they all need to come out of the box strong at Martinsville. It ought to be another exciting and unpredictable weekend of racing.
VIDEO: NASCAR Victory Lane with Brad Keselowski
