NASCAR
Team Penske and Their Quietly Great 2022 Season Across Racing
Despite only scoring six points-paying NASCAR wins combined with their three drivers, Team Penske had a year to remember. Thanks to Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Logano, the Ford powerhouse earned triumphs in the Busch Light Clash, the Daytona 500, the All-Star Race, the Cup Series championship, and Rookie of the Year. Not only did Roger Penske’s NASCAR team sweep all of these momentous accolades, they also won the IndyCar championship. Let’s take a detailed look back at each of these highlights from what may just be a Penske-Perfect 2022.
Austin Cindric
To say Austin Cindric was filling big shoes as a rookie would be an understatement. The 2020 Xfinity Series champion and 2021 runner-up was taking over the flagship car at Penske: the deuce. In 2022, Cindric added his name to a legacy with the Penske 2 car that includes past champions Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch, and Brad Keselowski.
Cindric would make his presence known early, giving the No. 2 Mustang one of its greatest moments ever. In just his eighth career start, the 24-year-old won the Daytona 500. Only adding onto this win’s significance, Roger Penske went to victory lane on his 85th birthday. With his name alongside NASCAR icons on the Harley J. Earl Trophy, the rookie season was already a success for Cindric. Being the only rookie to make the Playoffs, Cindric also clinched Rookie of the Year honors.
A full-season effort that totaled nine top-10s saw the first-year driver place 12th in the championship. While winless since the season-opener, Cindric still had a very successful season capturing top honors in the 2022 rookie class.
Ryan Blaney
2022 may be classified as a season of countless ‘what ifs’ for Ryan Blaney. Despite winning the Texas All-Star Race in May, the 12 team failed to win a points race all season long. This was far from indicative of any speed or performance out of Blaney though; he led 636 laps and had 17 top-10s in a very consistent campaign. Blaney’s season-long efforts of being oh-so-close began at the Daytona 500, as Cindric blocked the 12 coming to the line. In the closing laps of the season-finale at Phoenix, Blaney was in second chasing down teammate Joey Logano with a faster car, but simply ran out of time to pass the 22. This snapshot was a microcosm of the year as a whole for the 12; doing everything right only to come up short.
Placing eighth in the championship is by no means a bad season. but Blaney’s lack of wins did seem like a confidence killer late in the Playoffs. Unforced and self-inflicted errors derailed potential winning days for the 12 in Round of 8 races at Las Vegas and Homestead. Perhaps the only omission on what was otherwise a stellar season for Team Penske, Ryan Blaney needs to find victory lane again in 2023 to reassert himself as an elite championship-caliber driver.
Joey Logano
All attention around the current racing world is rightly on Joey Logano. Thanks to winning Phoenix, Logano is now a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. However, 2022 for the 22 had far greater successes than just Phoenix. Logano bookended the NASCAR calendar with victories, starting off the year with a win at the inaugural Busch Light Clash in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The 22 would not find victory lane again until Darlington in May, booting William Byron out of the way for that win. Logano found another inaugural win at Gateway in June. Once the Playoffs started, Logano would not see victory again until the Round of 8 opener from Las Vegas, punching his ticket to his fifth Championship 4 appearance.
The two weeks to prepare for the Phoenix finale ultimately payed dividends for the 22 team. Logano started the championship race from the pole and hardly ever was at a disadvantage. While he did lead 187 laps in the win, he was also the top-placed contender for all but one circuit. In a manner very similar to his first title in 2018, Logano flew under-the-radar for most of the season only to win in the clutch. Logano’s second career championship at age 32 is also the third for Team Penske.
The 22 shows no signs of slowing down, as they have seemingly cracked the code on how to win a modern NASCAR championship. This time however, Logano won the title with Paul Wolfe atop the box as crew chief. Wolfe was also crew chief for Penske’s first championship in 2012. Now with a title together, Logano and Wolfe could be a dynamic duo that wins many more races and championships for years to come.
IndyCar
Earning nine wins across their 17-race schedule, the trio of Penske IndyCar teams took three of the top four spots in their championship. This effort was headlined by Will Power, who took home his second Astor Cup in 2022. Also winning IndyCar races for Penske were Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin. Team Penske becomes the first organization in history to win both the NASCAR Cup and IndyCar titles in the same season.
On all accounts, 2022 was a banner year for Team Penske across both premier racing series. 2023 will be a challenge for all Penske teams to replicate this amount of on-track success, but not impossible. Penske’s first attempt at repeating any of these feats is in the not-so-distant future, as the Busch Light Clash will be here before we know it.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Jared C. Tilton & Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR
