NASCAR
2024 Saw Another Motorsports Banner Year for Team Penske
Roger Penske has a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. A third-straight NASCAR Cup Series title, a 20th Indianapolis 500, and sports car championships in WEC and IMSA were just the highlights of a very productive year for Team Penske. An argument could be made that 2024 was Penske’s best season ever. Ever the visionary leader, ‘The Captain’ knows to relish in this success as a total team effort.
“Racing is a common thread through our company,” Penske said. “It’s our brand, and of course we want to win.”
“I think that Ryan (Blaney) and Joey (Logano), they do everything they can for the team, and Austin (Cindric) and all the other people that have been with us, (Rick) Mears over the years, have felt the same way.”
“What I try to do is provide them with what they need to be champions. We’re not always up like this. Sure, we want to win more. We want to win properly. I think when you race in this league with the teams we have here and you see the execution — you’ve got to give Mike Nelson and Travis Geisler and Paul Wolfe and the people who have been — Jonathan Hassler, these guys are just outstanding. And we grew them. We didn’t put them in from the top in the final, they came up through the bottom, every one of them. So they have that domain knowledge, which makes it so important, and they work as one team.”
“So what I need to do is continue to push them because we’re not interested in sitting here and not have the success, and I think that’s been a great thing for us, not only here in NASCAR racing but in all the other series because it rubs off.”
“We talk about the 24 Hours of Daytona, that rubbed off on these guys. They’re always asking me how are we doing. And I think when you think about it, the number of people that we have that we touch every race in our company. We have 74,000 people that are going to be just climbing the walls with happiness because of the success.”
“That’s what I’m in it for. It’s not another race. It is but it isn’t. It’s about being able to show our people and our partners what kind of company we are. So this certainly helps.”
The list of Penske victories across all series in 2024 reads like any racer’s dream. The Rolex 24 at Daytona, the NASCAR All-Star Race, the 108th Indianapolis 500, the first Cup race at Iowa Speedway, and lastly titles across WEC, IMSA, and NASCAR were their major wins. The only crown jewels where Penske were shut out this year were the Daytona 500, the IndyCar championship, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“Well, I guess you’d have to say it’s probably, if not the best, one of the best. I think that obviously not to win the IndyCar championship, which of course it’s where we all start and build our first racing team, was disappointing. But it’s one of those things that you try and you don’t. (Chip) Ganassi, you have to give him credit. He continues to put up great numbers with his guys. I told him, ‘come on back to NASCAR, it’s gotten easier.'”
Team Penske’s continued NASCAR success is nothing to gloss over. In the three-year Next Gen era, Penske is 3-0 in championships between Joey Logano (2022, 2024) and Ryan Blaney (2023). Blaney’s title defense this past year also saw the No. 12 be within three tenths of repeating, right in Logano’s tire tracks when the checkers flew last month at Phoenix. This moment marked a rare feat not previously achieved by Penske–a Cup championship top-two sweep.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s really incredible,” Blaney said. “Three in a row for Team Penske and Roger and Ford. Jim Farley was here today. That’s a massive deal for Ford. It was really great to have him here. Super excited for Roger and Walt Czarnecki and Tim Cindric, Bud Denker, Jonathan Gibson, all those guys who put it together.”
“Yeah, a Penske one-two, I think that’s the first time they’ve ever won one-two in the championship, so that’s a huge compliment. I think Team Penske as a whole does such a great job of being prepared for these right moments in the Playoffs, but we also have speed all year.”
“I feel like our speed in general, I can only speak on us, we had great speed all year. Just wasn’t the most consistent year of getting tore up, a lot of DNFs. But I feel like our pace has been really good, and we ended the year really strong on speed, so I’m proud of that effort.”
“It’s just kind of — gosh, we got through it every year, ’22, ’23, and this year we sit around at the beginning of the year and in the summer a little bit and come to the Playoff time. All of our employees have to sit around and listen to people saying that we suck and we don’t deserve to be here and why are they in the Playoffs and all that s—. And we’ve won the last three championships.”
“This team does a great job of rising to doubters. It’s really cool to be a part of that team, and they just work their asses off to figure out what we need to do to get better every single week. They know how to rise to the occasion come Playoff time.”
Blaney’s 2024 results were exemplary in their own right, even coming short of a title repeat. The 12 team won three times as defending champions, takings wins at Iowa, Pocono, and the semifinal Playoff race at Martinsville. Much like Logano, Blaney has seemingly entered the conversation of yearly threats for the Cup title with an ability to win on a variety of track types. Martinsville in particular proved that Blaney has the clutch factor needed to perform under the greatest pressure possible in the NASCAR Playoffs.
Looking beyond the two title-caliber drivers, Austin Cindric had a stellar season as well. His third year on the Cup tour was highlighted by winning Gateway. The seas parted for the 2 after Ryan Blaney ran out of gas coming to the white flag. Aside from that high point though, Cindric explained many milestones achieved by the 2 team this past year.
“I think the Playoffs as a whole definitely provided us with a lot of great data points at important racetracks,” Cindric said. “Going in next year with two races at Atlanta, two races at Martinsville, and Phoenix, all those (were) good events for us and the company. So I think there’s a part of me that definitely didn’t want the season to end. I feel like we were definitely on a climb with our team and our processes going back to tracks for the second time, but otherwise still a lot to work on the offseason. A lot of opportunities to keep moving forward.”
“I feel like I’ve had three rookie seasons to start my Cup career, all for different reasons. The progress has been good, especially the tail end of this year. I may be a bit hard on myself having two wins saying all that, but it’s definitely the expectation to run that well, continue to improve, and run at the level on a consistent basis where we kind of expect as a company. It’s been good, but yeah we have to keep it going.”
“I feel like there are always going to be challenges, and I feel like the Cup Series has never been more competitive race-to-race, position-to-position than it is now. The margin for error is smaller than it’s ever been. I love it because it requires the people involved, which I feel like this car is all about–showcasing the best individuals. If you’re not the best on a certain day, there’s a penalty for it and it’s your fault.”
“It really is an open book between all three teams, I feel like people say that but it really is the case. I think the best example that I have with Ryan and Joey, both very successful, watching Ryan over the last three or four years really step up into a leadership role on the team. But for me the two of them achieve success in so very different ways of how they are able to get performance. For me that’s a great example of having to do what’s best for you and your team, utilizing the best resources in a way that makes sense for your group.”
“I’m proud of the team and effort this year. We took a group of young guys, including myself, with not very much experience and went through a lot of growth this year. Understanding what those processes are as a group, turned ourselves into Playoff contenders, it’s taking the next step forward from that.”
“The win was a highlight, but our Playoff performance meant that much more. I’m not a huge stats person, but I found it interesting we had a top-five at every style of racetrack on the schedule. That’s important for Cup success, but it’s not enough. One at every track is better than none though. I’m proud of how well-rounded we’ve become in that way, but it’s now about moving that forward and having those results on a consistent basis. The processes and the speed were all there, just racing’s hard sometimes.”
“In relation to teammates and Playoffs and all that, I think there was an 18-race stretch where we equaled or bettered the amount of points the 22 had. This obviously isn’t a points game, like the conversation has been after Joey won. But he still won five races this year. That’s a lot of wins, and all at the right time. What else would you want out of somebody? He’s a great example of a guy that when it’s time to go and he smells blood in the water, rarely does he ever miss. It’s cool to see that, that process and how different he and Ryan are. It is motivating and a great example for me of how to really look at getting performance. At this high of a level, it comes out of yourself maximizing your strengths, maximizing your team’s strengths. I think the way Ryan and Joey both maximize themselves and their teams are completely different but lead to equal success.”
“To be honest, the last three years of seeing my teammate winning the championship has motivated me plenty.”
Winning the biggest accolades for Team Penske in 2024 was Joey Logano, taking a third Bill France Cup. Despite only one regular season win across the opening 26 weeks, the 22 was on kill mode once the postseason began. Logano would take the first Playoff race from Atlanta, then the Round of 8 opener in Las Vegas. The 22 remained stout in the Phoenix desert, taking his fourth win on the flat mile. This victory led to Logano’s third Cup title, all coming in the last seven seasons. Logano is now in very rare territory as only the 10th three-time Cup champion. The champ gives a lion’s share of the credit to a gamble that Penske made nearly a decade-and-half ago.
“I mean, you want to perform for Roger,” Logano said. “He’s the guy that he took the chance on me. When you think about it, 13 years ago, I didn’t have options. Like this was the option.”
“To think that he took that chance, that Shell took that chance, Ford took that chance on a driver that won Xfinity races but that was really it. To grow into what we are now is something I take a lot of pride in. But to see the others of Team Penske and you think about what Team Penske is today. Racing in all the different forms of motorsports and winning in all of them. Like where else do you want to go? This is where you go to win. You surround yourself with a winner, that’s what happens.”
“My dad is back here, so this is one of his favorite quotes. It’s one of my favorites, too. ‘You can’t soar like an eagle if you’re working with a bunch of turkeys.’ There’s a lot of eagles there. There’s a lot of really smart people, a lot of driven individuals, and that goes through so many different forms throughout Penske.”
“We’re talking about motorsports, but gosh, I was talking to Roger yesterday, and he was talking about his Porsche dealerships and the Ford dealership up in Dearborn now. This guy is everywhere. He was telling me all the places he was. I’m like, geez, dude. It made what we’re doing look small when he was telling me everything that was going on. I was like, ‘this doesn’t seem like a big deal at all, does it?’ Obviously it is. I’m joking.”
“I’ve never met anybody that has more stuff going on than Roger Penske. He’s got some great people around him that go with him everywhere and do it together. It’s really neat to see how that works. And obviously I take a lot to apply to my life, as well.”
Logano continued to praise the legion of talented men and women that Roger’s assembled within Team Penske to propel them to the last three NASCAR titles.
“Finishing three championships in a row is great, but finishing one-two, having two cars in the Championship 4, that’s hard. That’s hard to do to prepare a couple of cars, having two championship-capable teams.”
“Just as easily as we won, the 12 could have won. Really both our cars were fairly equal depending on what part of the run we’re talking about. Both the teams are solid all the way through, top to bottom. It’s really like, geez, how do you do that? It’s very impressive that we’ve been able to do that.”
“You bring up the Next-Gen car; the car has never been more alike. So the details never mattered more than they do right now. That’s a big piece to be proud of is that it’s not like we’re getting beat by money or being beat by having different parts and pieces and not being able to create a spindle quick enough. We’ve all got the same ones. It’s not a design thing. It’s all the same. The details and the people matter the most now.”
No one person, whether a driver, crew chief, engineer, et cetera can ever claim sole responsibility for a NASCAR championship. Winning stock car racing’s biggest prize may be the ultimate team sport; having dozens of dedicated individuals rally together for on-track heroics. Logano is more than aware that his continued success is built on the backs of hundreds at Team Penske with lofty expectations.
“I don’t know how to put it into words how hard it is. But I think anyone listening that has probably done anything in professional sports understands it probably as good as anybody. You put the best of the best at their profession doing the same thing with one common goal. The competition is always trying to get better, and everybody is wanting to win. It just gets harder and harder to do. The field gets closer and closer every year. It’s tough. It’s hard to find an advantage over anybody anymore.”
“To see that Team Penske has done that, for one, shows that Roger is a fantastic leader. You’ve got to think of the management of (Tim) Cindric, Mike Nelson, Travis Geisler for sure. Those guys, they’re our leaders. Those are the guys that make the decisions on everything.”
“You’ve got to think that it starts at the top and starts to work its way through. They’ve done a good job at hiring people. They say it all the time, it’s hard to get in and it’s hard to leave. That’s what Team Penske is.”
“We’re expected to win, and the culture is that, exactly. We’re going to win and we’re going to do it in a professional way. It doesn’t have to be said anymore.”
“That’s our brand. That’s what we are. So to be sitting here again celebrating together — I told you a little bit earlier when we were talking just what it means. It’s so cool to see everyone celebrating together. It gets more special every time because it’s the people that you work with for a long period of time. You grind it out every day together.”
“And after working there for, whatever it’s been, 13 years or so now, you get a lot of relationships built up over that amount of time. So winning together means more than ever to me, which makes this championship one of the most special ones. You have that relationship with everyone a little bit more.”
Penske is far from the first or last NASCAR team to define an era with unparalleled success. While they may be on top now with the last three championships, no winning streak stays active forever. 2025 will be a fresh chance for every team across the garage to try and end Penske’s reign of supremacy.
The Hall of Fame car owner is only the third man to lead a team to a Cup championship three-peat. Penske will aim to join Rick Hendrick as the only man to win four-straight Cup titles in 2025. 33 other hungry competitors will be targeting Team Penske, however. As long as any Penske Ford Mustang remains in contention though, the championship does run through them.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Meg Oliphant, David Jensen, and Sean Gardner/Getty Images
