Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway produced a familiar sight, as Kyle Larson finally returned to victory lane and snapped a 51-race winless streak dating back to his Kansas Speedway win in May 2025.
Granted, he had to survive a track-record 18 cautions and a pair of overtime restarts, but the fact that he has finally broken through is a dangerous sight for everyone. That said, as impressive as Larson's performance was with a stage two win and 80 laps led, it was a major missed opportunity for the entire Team Penske organization.
Going into the weekend, many expected the winner of the race to come from that group, specifically Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney. While Logano won the pole with a blistering lap on Saturday and Blaney qualified third, both came away empty-handed and left some valuable points on the table.
It was still a solid third-place finish for Logano with 54 points scored and a jump to seventh in the standings, now just 51 points behind championship leader Denny Hamlin. For Blaney, however, a pair of fourth place stage finishes were not enough to offset a brake failure down the frontstretch that ultimately put him in the outside wall and ended his day in 35th.
Even Austin Cindric, a past Gateway winner in 2024, had a quiet and uneventful day in 10th and failed to make up any ground in the standings (12th, -108). While Blaney remains in the best shape of the three in fourth (-33) after the opening two Chase races, all three drivers let an opportunity slip away at a track type where have excelled in recent years.
Team Penske's championship hopes take a backseat after Gateway disappointment
To be fair, Blaney and Logano are still legitimate title contenders at this point, especially considering the 15-point bonus that now comes with winning a race. However, with both of Logano's wins this season (North Wilkesboro Speedway, Richmond Raceway) and two of Blaney's three (Phoenix Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway) coming at tracks similar in length to Gateway, this was definitely one that got away from them.
For Blaney, the outcome was even more crushing after Hamlin accumulated just five stage points and finished ninth. It was another subpar showing from the points leader and no one, besides Larson, was able to capitalize on Sunday.
Sure, Blaney has been plagued by pit crew issues all season and even started the Chase with a different crew as he and Cindric swapped out, but he has clearly had the most pace of all the Fords this season. That is still not enough, though, if the results do not back it up, and that is what happened at Gateway when the brake issue reared its head.
Many doubted Logano after a slow start to the season put the three-time champion at a huge points deficit. He followed that up by giving fans a rude awakening with those two wins in a four-race span and showed that he can still be a title threat, even under more of a season-long format.
However, he still has a little work to do with 51 points to make up, though one race win could completely change everything. That does not ring as true for Cindric, who is one of five drivers more than 100 points behind Hamlin. In other words, his Chase is all but over at this point unless he puts together a string of wins and accumulates a ton of stage points.
Even for Blaney and Logano, who are still as much in the title picture as they were coming into Gateway, the points they gave away on Sunday could play a role going forward. Sure, Blaney was runner-up at Bristol Motor Speedway in the spring while Logano was seventh, and both drivers have been excellent at Phoenix and Martinsville Speedway, but the upcoming stretch of three consecutive races at 1.5-mile tracks following Bristol will really test them.
Blaney has a best finish of seventh twice and Logano came home eighth in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway earlier this season. Neither driver has been anywhere near as strong as the Toyota drivers on those layouts. Unless something magically changes from the regular season to the Chase, it could be a long three weeks for the organization if they let another opportunity slip away at Bristol.
There are still eight races left in the Chase and plenty to decide, but Team Penske already blew a massive opportunity at Gateway. They cannot afford to do that going forward if they truly want to spoil the Toyota party and the resurgence that Larson has experienced the past few weeks.
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