Coming into 2026, Team Penske hasn't been at its absolute best. Apart from Ryan Blaney, the other Penske drivers, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, are nowhere near their past performances. As a result, Roger Penske's team is currently biting the dust to make it to the Chase as the cutoff deadline looms large.

Penske had unprecedented performances in 2022, 2023, and 2024, winning three back-to-back titles. However, this year, nothing seems to be working for them apart from Blaney's solo show.

Speaking about this SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Blaney's crew chief Jonathan Hassler said:

"You know, on the 12th car, we've been able to just be consistent, and that's definitely what we focused on is just, a lot of consistency, bringing the best car that we know how to bring each and every week and just say, you know, focused on ourselves a little bit."

As things stand, only the No. 12 car seems to have an answer to the Toyota onslaught (12 wins) and Chevrolet's push (six wins). Blaney is spearheading Ford's attack in 2026 with two wins, and Hassler wants to keep up this consistency.

"It's always when you're struggling as a group, as a manufacturer, it's always tough, trying to decide how much of a change to bite off, in it, in order to try and find that performance," Hassler further told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "And I think that's maybe what we've done well is just take small steps and things that we're relatively confident in and continue to get better every week without taking a big step backwards."

So far, Ryan Blaney has won two races, at Phoenix and the recently concluded one at Atlanta. He had complete dominance at the Quaker State 400, where he started the race from the pole, secured Stage 1 and Stage 2, and went on to win the race.

Apart from him, neither Penske driver managed to find performance. Their performance graph has not been changing, and as a result, the No. 12 looks very different than No. 22 and No. 2.

Currently, Blaney is in third place, with 726 points, four top fives, and 15 top 10s. He is the only Ford driver in the top five. Despite the slump, a renowned NASCAR expert holds the Ford driver as a favorite to win the title.

Keeping aside the disadvantage, Ryan Blaney predicted to be a championship contender

Renowned NASCAR journalist Jordan Bianchi predicted that Ryan Blaney could become a regular-season champion. After the dominant Atlanta win, the Team Penske driver got within 65 points of championship leader Denny Hamlin.

Speaking about this in the recent "The Teardown" podcast, Bianchi said (as shared by Dirty Mo Media on X):

"We know all the issues that Ford has had this year. That said, I do think we have to start giving Ryan Blaney serious consideration to winning this championship."

Following this, he explained how the upcoming speedway races can help Blaney and Ford get an advantage over Toyota.

"And here's why. We've got North Wilkesboro next week. We've got Iowa, we have New Hampshire, we have Richmond, and then we have Daytona. Those are all tracks where Toyota's superiority should be negated a little bit, and those are tracks where Blaney has run well the last few years, and Ford has been able to hang on there, particularly New Hampshire, particularly Daytona," he further added.

While Blaney is predicted to be the winner, his teammates, Austin Cindric and Joey Logano, are at risk of elimination from the Chase. Cindric is in 14th place with 470 points, while Logano is in 17th with 438 points. Cindric has a 24-point cushion on the cutline, but Logano trails by eight points.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak