While Joey Logano and Paul Wolfe are the lone Team Penske driver/crew chief pairing that has yet to find victory lane through the opening 17 races of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Wolfe explained in a media conference on Wednesday that despite being winless in points-paying races this season, he is carrying confidence into this weekend’s USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, as the 22 team we want to win too, but I think Roger’s always expressed this over the years – when one team wins we all win,” Wolfe said, “and I think the way we’re structured and specifically as well as we’ve been working together with the 12 team here recently, we wanted to be the team spraying the champagne the other night.
“But you’ve got to look at it and know that we were a part of that in a way in helping build the program and the way we all work together, so it definitely gives us confidence. Like I said, if we can’t be in Victory Lane, there’s nothing better than seeing one of our team cars because it gives you another data point of, ‘OK, we’re on the right path here,’ the things we’ve been working on are correct and we’ll keep massaging on it as we move forward to Loudon this weekend.”
When Wolfe says that he and Logano were a part in helping build the Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse program, he’s referencing a Goodyear Tire Test at North Wilkesboro Speedway earlier this season, where Logano turned nearly 900 laps in preparation for the NASCAR All-Star Race, an event Logano and Wolfe scored the win in.
The crew chief states that the No. 22 team found quite a bit out about the short track aerodynamic package for the Ford Mustang Dark Horse at that test, and what they’ve found has been paying major dividends for the Team Penske organization ever since. Now, with Logano sitting precariously outside of the Playoff cutline by six points, Wolfe is hopeful that this is the weekend that they break through in a big way.
Wolfe may only have one career win as a crew chief at the 1.058-mile oval, which came with Brad Keselowski as his driver back in 2014, but Wolfe-prepared entries are always in the conversation when the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Loudon.
In 20 career starts at the facility, Wolfe’s drivers have recorded 10 top-fives and 14 top-10 finishes. Logano finished runner-up in this event a season ago, and over their last four races at The Magic Mile, Logano and Wolfe have recorded three top-five finishes.
The recent speed of Team Penske, their past performances at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and his team’s strength at shorter tracks have all aided in boosting Wolfe’s confidence this weekend.
“Even as you look at the past couple years with the Next Gen car, at times when we struggle for speed on mile-and-a-halves or road course, we always kind of have our short track program to fall back on and we’ve been able to find some success there, at least have good, solid runs,” Wolfe explained. “I think that’s obviously continued for us this year as well, so definitely with what we’ve been able to do there the past couple of years, I’m really excited about getting back there this week and continuing to build off our strong runs. Obviously, our teammates have been able to find Victory Lane on the short tracks, so we’re hoping it’s our turn this weekend.”
If Logano can pull off the win this weekend, it’ll mark the third win for Team Penske over the last four races.
