NASCAR insider points out 'blunt reality' Penske has to face after missing out on 2025 championship

At Martinsville this past weekend, Team Penske’s reign at the top of the NASCAR Cup Series came to an abrupt end. After combining to win the past three championships, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano were both eliminated in the Round of 8.

That ended Penske’s hopes of defending their title, leaving the organization facing hard questions heading into the offseason. On the latest episode of The Teardown, The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi broke down what went wrong for the Ford powerhouse, and why Penske’s struggles go beyond one disappointing result in Virginia.

“I think last year, what Ryan Blaney has done at Martinsville these last two years has kind of cast a shadow over everything else,” Bianchi explained. “But when you step back and look at it, you know, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott were really, really good here last year in this race. They were both in contention. And so Hendrick may have been off a little bit, but it wasn’t like they were completely out of the ballpark. They at least had something there to make gains out of and to build off of, and they certainly did that.”

Bianchi noted that while Team Penske entered the postseason with momentum, the organization’s overall performance has lagged behind NASCAR’s two most complete teams. Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing have surpassed them.

“I think if you’re Team Penske, you need to step back from this,” he said. “Yes, this is a big missed opportunity for the reasons we just laid out, but you need to look at it from a 30,000-foot perspective. We talk a lot about the big three, but I feel like it’s almost — I don’t say an asterisk, I don’t know how you would describe it. Joe Gibbs Racing is pretty good just about everywhere for the most part, right?

“Team Hendrick Motorsports is very, very good just about everywhere. Their intermediate track program is a little iffy sometimes, but largely they’re pretty good everywhere. Team Penske, though. Their bread and butter is short, flat tracks. The Iowas, the Gateways, Richmond, all of that stuff.”

Bianchi pointed out that Blaney remains the exception within the Penske camp, but the rest of the team hasn’t kept pace: “Blaney is running really, really well most weeks. But the other two cars within that organization — the No. 22 and the No. 2 — if it’s not a superspeedway or a short, flat track, they’re really iffy. They’re up and down,” Bianchi said.

“Organizationally, if Team Penske wants to be in the same caliber as JGR or Hendrick, they’ve got a lot of work to do. And that’s a sharp reality. That’s a very blunt reality for them. They have to face this offseason.”

For a team that’s been a benchmark for excellence, the challenge is clear moving forward. Team Penske must rediscover the balance and adaptability that made them champions, or they risk falling behind NASCAR’s elite teams.