For the past three NASCAR Cup Series seasons, a Team Penske driver has won the championship at Phoenix Raceway in November. In all three years, the driver in question did not lead the full-season standings (and it wasn't close).
Because NASCAR fans hate the playoffs with such a visceral rage that they like to pretend the full-season standings are the "real" standings at the end of the year, we have to hear about how these are invalid titles. There's only one problem with that: none of the teams or drivers are operating under this mindset.
If that wasn't obvious before, it should be now, as Penske has once again flipped a switch on flat ovals. Ryan Blaney was dominant at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, earning his third win of 2025 in the Mobil 1 301, and if that tells us anything about how Phoenix might go, he should be the favorite there too. This is all completely by design.
Team Penske built for the playoffs, and fans still can't wrap their heads around it
Let's set aside that, regardless of format, Blaney has been the best driver of 2025. The fact that he's only 19 points out of the full-season lead, despite seven non-driver error-related DNFs, shows how consistently elite he has been. His average finish in races he's made it to the end is 7.6.
Still, yet again, Penske is grabbing another gear in the fall, specifically on tracks that are similar to Phoenix. On Sunday, Blaney was joined up front by Joey Logano, who led 147 of 301 laps from the pole, and pseudo-teammate Josh Berry, who came back from an early spin to finish second.
Logano, in particular, is the driver everybody likes to point to as a playoff merchant who "just keeps getting lucky" and wouldn't stand a chance under a full-season format.
Yes, his 2024 championship required an absurd amount of good fortune following a P15 regular season finish, but he has also repeatedly stepped up his game when he has needed to. If he was required to perform at a title-caliber level all season, he would.
The playoffs (or previously, the Chase for the Cup) have existed for 22 years now. We've watched teams and drivers game the system for decades. Before Penske did it, it was Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team. They'd come storming out of the gates to establish their presence, then fall behind over the summer, then once it was time for the sprint to the finish, they'd put their heads down and get the job done, year after year.
This isn't rocket science. When certain races matter more than others, teams will treat those more important races with more seriousness than others. For that reason, those make-believe full-season standings are irrelevant, just like how having the best regular-season record in the NFL or NBA is irrelevant.
You don't have to like the playoffs, but they're what every team and driver builds their strategy for the season around. If they didn't exist, everyone would race differently.