June 7, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Team Penske and other Fords scrambling to catch Hendrick Motorsports

Sunday morning at Sonoma Raceway, the competition leaders from the top three Ford organizations met before the SaveMart 350.

After Team Penske’s Travis Geisler returned to the hauler, I asked him tongue-in-cheek whether the Blue Oval brain trust was strategizing to overcome the rout they suffered with the 550-horsepower package at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Geisler graciously replied, ‘No.” The Ford teams meet prior to every event to devise a game plan. Then he pointed to the Hendrick armada at the front of the paddock and added, “We’ve got to close the gap or it’s not going to be much of a Playoffs.”

Charlotte was an old-fashion butt-kicking by Hendrick Motorsports. Not only did Kyle Larson head the charge by leading 327 of 400 laps, but he won every stage en route to the victory. Kyle Busch was the only non-Chevy driver to finish among the top six. Points leader—and still winless—Denny Hamlin finished seventh. Eighth-place Chris Buescher was the top Ford, with Kevin Harvick rounding out the top 10.

The top Penske Ford in the Coca-Cola 600 was Brad Keselowski in 11th. His six laps led at Charlotte was the most by any Mustang. But with 10 races remaining before the postseason and three intermediate tracks situated prominently in the second and third rounds of the Playoffs, Ford faces an uphill battle to catch and compete with the Hendrick Chevrolets in the current NASCAR Cup landscape.

Joey Logano was competitive at Sonoma. Despite an issue with a tire in the first 10 laps of the race, he quickly recovered and finished fourth—2.637-seconds behind race winner Larson. But with the current speed of the Hendrick cars, it will be an uphill climb for Logano if he hopes to return to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Racing in November.

“It’s hard to say it’s good when you’re not winning, at least that’s for me,” Logano said. “We get paid to win. Top fives are great, and running towards the front is good, but we need more speed to beat them. The 5 (Larson) is the class of the field right now. You’ve got a really good driver and a really good car and that’s what you get.

“So we’ve got to keep working, keep grinding. I have to keep grinding as a driver. We’ve got to keep grinding as a team and finding it. Everything goes through cycles, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re on the top end of the cycle when the playoffs come around.”

Now that Larson has finally won on a road course, he’ll be even more dangerous. After Sunday’s Sonoma victory, Larson said, “It definitely, definitely helps my confidence.”

“Everybody knows, like, I've always qualified really well on the road courses, but I haven't been the best racer,” Larson said. “Then (Sunday) starting from the pole, I was like, ‘Man, I just hope it's not like it always is.’ It wasn't. I knew we had a car capable of winning after that first competition caution.

“Yeah, so to get a win and know that I can race, I feel like I learned a lot here this week about how to kind of pass people on road courses. I think that's really going to benefit me going forward. We were able to beat the two best road course racers of the last six years or longer it seems today. Definitely means a lot. For sure helps our confidence on this 5 car.”

The 2021 schedule features seven road courses, four more than the traditional number since the Charlotte Roval was added in 2018. Knowing that Logano will have to battle a Larson his current level of conviction can’t be reassuring. However, Logano was encouraged by the improvements the Penske camp has made with its road course package on Sunday.

“These road courses, as much as everyone wants to say it’s all the driver, it’s 50-50 like everywhere else,” Logano said. “A great driver can only do so much in a mediocre car and vice versa the other way around, so I always think it’s 50-50, and I think now he’s got both and that’s why we’re all racing with our tongues hanging out trying to catch him.

“I wouldn’t say we’re clicking because we didn’t win, but I think we’re in the ballpark and we’re making small gains. It’s hard to make the big gain. The Hendrick cars are just better, no matter where you’re at. They’re just better right now, so we have to keep our heads down and keep digging, but know that our 750 stuff is in the ballpark so that part is nice to know.

“It’s not gonna be one easy thing where you say, ‘Oh, there it is,’ but over time we’ll close the gap. It happens all the time.  Remember, a couple of years ago we were saying Hendrick couldn’t win a race and now look at them, so it goes in cycles and we’ve just got to keep working hard to get back on top.”