Roger Penske & Co. Reaffirm Faith In Ryan Blaney Amidst Joey Logano’s Diminishing Presence

Team Penske has a history of backing up champions. Take Joey Logano, for example. He’s a three-time Cup Series champion and has long been the team’s anchor. Ryan Blaney, who’s the 2023 champion, has been steadily building his case within the team. In 2026, that case has now become impossible to ignore

On May 6, Team Penske announced a multi-year contract extension for Ryan Blaney. Later, speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, the 31-year-old talked about what the deal meant.

“I walked in the doors over there in 2012,” Blaney said, “a young 18-, 19-year-old kid. For someone like Roger Penske to give me that opportunity was a dream come true. I couldn’t foresee myself being anywhere else. They’ve been an unbelievable group and a family to me.”

However, Joey Logano – who had been watching Blaney inch towards his full-time dream wide-eyed, and who, with Blaney, forms the longest-running duo in Team Penske – might now have to buckle up.

Now, taking a look at them one by one, there is a clear distinction in how one outshines the other. On track, Blaney is currently fourth in the 2026 standings and already has a win under his belt at Phoenix in March. There have been 11 races so far, and he has had three top fives and seven top tens, averaging a finish of 13.1. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler overhauled the pit crew in April and brought in veteran jackman Graham Stoddard. With this move, the No. 12 crew jumped from 22nd to 9th in four-tire change speed within just two races.

However, Logano’s No. 22 has an opposite story altogether. Joey Logano, who reportedly makes $9 million annually and is contracted through at least 2027, is 17th in the standings, that’s 110 points behind Blaney.

Logano is winless so far this season, and while there have been flashes, there’s been more frustration. Twelve months ago at this point in the season, he had already secured his playoff spot with a Texas victory, despite a run to that point featuring just one top-ten finish at Martinsville and nothing inside the top five. The results were thin, but the win was enough. That is the Logano paradox laid bare.

His 2024 championship was built on the same template. He had four wins scattered across a season where he averaged a 17th-place finish, the worst average of any Cup champion on record. The elimination format gave him a ladder to climb regardless of where he stood in the standings, and he climbed it masterfully. The system bent in his direction, and he bent with it. None of that is available to him in 2026.

After Texas, he sits 17th with a 21.0 average finish, and the season has an uncomfortable shape to it. He started well enough: a Duel win at Daytona, third in the 500 itself, third again at Martinsville, seventh at Bristol. Since then, he has not broken 30th across three consecutive outings, the last of which ended before the halfway mark after a pit road collision with Cole Custer ended his afternoon at Texas.

What makes it harder to dismiss as bad luck is that this boom-and-fade rhythm is not new for the No. 22. The team has a habit of building something and then watching it dissolve before it becomes anything sustained. That said, these are not just isolated performance-related issues. They come with financial consequences, too. Logano’s sponsors, Shell, Pennzoil, and Hunt Brothers Pizza, are getting less TV exposure as the No. 22 goes deeper into the field.