“We don’t get enough practice these days or tests to go and figure out what it wants.” That’s what Joey Logano said when asked about why Team Penske has been struggling at intermediate tracks this season. Apart from Austin Cindric’s Gateway win, the team does not have much to show in mile-and-a-half track races so far this year.
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NASCAR reduced practice times ever since the pandemic and with the new Ford Dark Horse Mustang, Team Penske has been struggling. Logano said that the majority of the data they had to fine-tune the car came from the wind tunnel. The numbers from the wind tunnel do not always translate to on-track performance as several factors are not taken into account.
“As much as you say the wind tunnel is the wind tunnel, but there’s a lot of different things that happen there that is different than the racetrack. It’s a perfect environment. They don’t have dirty air at the wind tunnel. You can’t get the cars as low as we do here at the racetrack. So things change from the wind tunnel to real life,” he said.
.@joeylogano is closing in on the playoff picture. pic.twitter.com/ukwhRiJwRU
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 18, 2024
However, one aspect of the season that Team Penske can be happy about is how well they have run on short tracks. Ryan Blaney won at the Iowa Speedway and Logano was the winner at North Wilkesboro.
What’s the secret behind Team Penske’s short-track success?
Speaking about their short-track performance, Logano said that he had some theories as to why that was the case. It seems like the Penske setup is working well with NASCAR’s aero-package that was introduced to improve racing at racks less than a mile in distance.
“Whether it’s aero, engine, or setups, you can put it all together and just have a better package on these short tracks. Also, the aero package is different as well. The short-track rules package is quite a bit different. Somewhere in all that, we’re putting together much better than we are on mile and a half’s,” he said.
If that really is the case then it’s a good thing that there are several short-track races in the playoffs like Bristol and Martinsville. Even Phoenix is considered by some to be a short track and that’s going to host the championship race.
