Team Penske will have some major heavy lifting to do when the green flag flies for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (3:00 PM ET on USA Network), should the star-studded organization secure back-to-back wins in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
After a horrendous Saturday in Kansas City, where two of the team’s three entries suffered tire failures in practice (one of which was catastrophic enough to warrant unloading a backup car) and the other found the outside wall during qualifying, now, all three drivers will be starting at the rear of the field.
Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse, was already scheduled to start shotgun on the field after not posting a time in qualifying. The most recent NASCAR Cup Series winner had to unload a backup car in practice after a catastrophic tire failure sent the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion into the outside wall hard.
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse, had a similar type of issue to Blaney, with the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion having a tire issue in practice. Logano was able to limp back to pit road without sustaining much damage.
However, when it came time to lay down a qualifying lap, Logano caught a major snap off the final corner, which killed his momentum to begin his one-lap run. That, plus a general lack of pace, pointing to possible issues with the suspension or underbody of the car, had his lap being more than a second and a half off the pole time set by Chase Briscoe.
STARTING LINEUP: 2025 NCS Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas
Logano will start at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments, per NASCAR.
Finally, Austin Cindric ended up being the “luckiest” of the three Team Penske drivers on Saturday, and even that came with significant wall contact during his qualifying run. The kicker is that, for the second week in a row, the No. 2 Ford Mustang Dark Horse could qualify inside the top five, but a mistake in qualifying killed his track position to start the race.
Cindric, like his teammate Logano, will be heading to the rear for unapproved adjustments.
Michael McDowell and Shane Van Gisbergen will join Team Penske’s three entries at the rear of the field to start Sunday’s 400-miler. The No. 71 and No. 88 were found to be making pre-practice adjustments to the splitter areas of their race cars.
As a result, crew chiefs Travis Peterson and Stephen Doran were ejected from the racetrack. The teams will also lose their pit selection, have to start at the rear, and serve a stop-and-go penalty when the race goes green.
Adam Sturgill (No. 71) and Chais Eliason (No. 88) are both scheduled to serve as interim crew chiefs for this afternoon’s event, per NASCAR’s Roster Portal. Both would be making their debuts as NASCAR Cup Series crew chiefs.
