Dale Earnhardt Jr. links Penske struggles at Charlotte to Penske controversy at Indy 500

Team Penske had a race to forget in this past Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. When you zoom out and focus on Penske as a whole, the entire week across both NASCAR and the IndyCar Series was less than ideal.

On the IndyCar side of things, team president Tim Cindric and two other executives were fired as part of a cheating scandal ahead of the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Then came the Coca-Cola 600, where Penske’s three-driver team struggled to make an impact. Joey Logano finished 17th, Austin Cindric 31st and Ryan Blaney 38th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who called the race on Prime Video, believes what happened to the IndyCar operation ahead of the Crown Jewel race played a role in Penske’s struggles at Charlotte. Penske couldn’t push the limits this week, Earnhardt said on Tuesday’s “Dale Jr. Download.”

“You can’t even have a failure by mistake,” Earnhardt said. “It is so common to have cars fail once or twice as they go through that tech. We don’t even bat an eye at it, really, because we know the teams are trying to push the limits on everything and teams are going to beyond those limits. Man, they knew they couldn’t even have that happen. They had to get in and out of there with zero noise.”

Team Penske nowhere to be found in Coca-Cola 600

Perhaps some of that played a role in Penske’s no-show at Charlotte. But beyond the latest controversy, Earnhardt sees an issue with their setup at Charlotte. Blaney won the 2023 Coca-Cola 600 but other than that, it’s been a grind for Penske at the 1.5-mile oval.

Blaney posted his fifth DNF of the year at Charlotte. Before crashing out on Lap 246, Earnhardt thought Blaney was making progress. It was just that kind of night for Penske.

“Right as he [Blaney] got crashed out, I thought he was making a run to maybe find himself in the top-15 by the end of the day. Josh Berry, who was horrid at the start of the race, ends up getting a top-15 finish grinding it out and they got his car where it was reasonable at the end,” Earnhardt said. “I was really surprised, again, and it’s not a season or a summer long thing, it’s just Charlotte. For some reason Penske at Charlotte, they just haven’t been able to get it the last couple trips.”