NASCAR Crash Course: Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney push their way into Cup Series playoff favorites

Joey Logano started the summer without a win or a guaranteed spot in the NASCAR playoffs. Ryan Blaney was struggling to follow up his championship performance from 2023.

But as fall draws near, both drivers are rising up at the right time.

Logano emerged from a wild Atlanta Motor Speedway race with his second win of the season, pushed to the front by Blaney as they watched other title contenders wilt around them. Main rivals Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin left vulnerable after their 2024 Cup Series playoff debut, crashes wiping out the advantage they had after strong regular-season performances.

Turns out it's Penske who's saved the best for last. And as the team goes for their third straight title, confidence comes from the experience of knowing how to attack this unique playoff format.

"It just seems like we do it," Logano said about the team's postseason success. "We just do. More times than not … we've been able to level up when we need to level up. To be able to fire off your first race of the playoffs with a statement win, it's key, right?"

Logano started off this year in a slump, two wrecks in the first four races leaving him 30th in points. From there, he was only able to rise to 13th, posting just two top-five finishes as subpar runs mirrored the struggles Ford had with their new chassis.

Even after a chaotic, wreck-filled, five-overtime finish went Logano's way at Nashville, the No. 22 team has struggled to gain momentum despite clinching a playoff bid. Three crashes in the last five regular season races made him a wild card come playoff time.

Logano answered those questions, quickly, with a run to the front in another overtime finish.

"Sometimes pressure can either make you crack and fall apart or it's going to make you better, right?" Logano said. "For us … we just kind of know how to handle it."

Same with Blaney, whose Dent Wizard Ford was all dented up after a final stage wreck caused by Chris Buescher losing control and slamming right into his No. 12. The incident left a fellow championship contender, Martin Truex Jr., limping home the rest of the race at half speed.

Not Blaney.

"Honestly, I can't believe we got back up where we did," the reigning Cup champ said after running third. "The 12 boys did a really good job fixing it … From my seat, I got drilled in the left rear, the door I guess is where it hit me. The right rear got off the fence … [but] I was able to carve up through traffic, get through the middle pretty good."

That led to sacrifice down the stretch, Blaney's push giving Logano a guaranteed spot in the Round of 12 while Blaney is all but in, 45 points above the cutline with two races to go. Add in Austin Cindric's race-high 92 laps led plus a stage win and it's clear this Penske trio is coming out swinging.

Larson, Hamlin, Chevy and Toyota need to get up off the mat this week before it's an early round TKO.

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Green: Alex Bowman. Fifth for Bowman was a Herculean effort after he spent all week dispelling rumors he'll be replaced in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after the season despite being signed through 2026. That'll be a lot harder to do after he ended Atlanta the highest-placed finisher of all four HMS cars.

Yellow: Daniel Suarez. Suarez was feeling the whole "second place is a first loser" quote after knowing an automatic bid to the Round of 12 slipped away. Despite Blaney's damaged car, it was the teammate push of Suarez-Ross Chastain that fell apart when Chastain's No. 1 hit the wall in overtime, a result of pushing the No. 99 a little too hard.

"I am happy with it, but not satisfied," Suarez said after moving to 22 points above the cutline. "I lost my pusher, my teammate … I don't know if he got a flat tire or something, but once I lost him. I knew it was going to be tough. But, that is a part of racing, right?"

Red: Harrison Burton. Burton's Cinderella playoff story seems positioned to come to an early end. Atlanta was where the No. 21 team needed to strike; instead, they struck the wall during a final-lap crash that left them 31st and 16 points below the cutline. There's nothing in their 2024 history that suggests they'll make up the deficit at two upcoming tracks (Watkins Glen, Bristol) that Burton has yet to score a top-10 finish at.

Speeding Ticket: Denny Hamlin. It's been a whirlwind week for Hamlin, whose 23XI Racing team is reportedly one of just two organizations that have yet to sign NASCAR's seven-year extension for charters (think, guaranteed spots on the grid). It appears that Michael Jordan, Hamlin and the rest of the team might be willing to take NASCAR to court after feeling like the sanctioning body did them dirty in negotiations.

Hamlin spent the rest of the weekend being hammered with questions about it, then hammered the wall during a race where he never came close to running up front. A dead-last qualifying effort became a 24th-place finish that leaves Hamlin just two points above the cutline in a year he's spent as a championship favorite.

Oops!

Kyle Larson started this playoff as the No. 1 seed, but leaves Atlanta in the worst shape of all. In an instant, his No. 5 Chevrolet turned hard right near the end of the first stage and took with it a large chunk of his regular-season advantage.

"Looking at it, looking like I just get loose midway through the corner and overcorrect," Larson said. "It just happened really fast."

His margin above the cutline dropped to 15 points while Chase Briscoe, who hit Larson head-on, dropped to dead last among the 16 playoff drivers just one week after winning Darlington.

"That's NASCAR, right," Briscoe said. "You can be on top one week and you can be at the very bottom of the mountain the next week."