Dale Jr. Rejects Joey Logano’s Championship Push as Penske Teammate Makes the Cut

Two of Roger Penske’s drivers suffered in Darlington. During the Southern 500, Joey Logano battled handling issues in the first stage, jostling to get into the top 15 in the following segments. Eventually, he could finish 20th. Similarly, Ryan Blaney fumbled with a flat right front tire, damage to the splitter, and pit road issues that landed him in 18th place. Despite this two-spot difference, Dale Jr. can see a gaping disparity between the two drivers.

Joey Logano is the reigning Cup Series champion. Based on a fluke assumption, Logano may not win this year since 2025 is an odd year – he won in 2018, 2022, and 2024 previously. However, Dale Jr. is more convinced, as Logano’s point scenario also does not look good.

Dale Jr. picks his championship favorite

Both Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney may have floundered in Darlington. However, Blaney had the upper hand. With 48 laps to go, he executed an impressive rebound. Blaney picked up seven positions over the course of the final run to salvage an 18th-place finish. Now, he enters the second race of the Round of 16 in seventh in the playoff standings, 22 points above the elimination line. Logano, on the other hand, did not score any stage points on Sunday. What is more, after his night to forget at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval, Logano moved from one point above the round of 12 cut line to three points below it.

That is why Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a tone of ultimate conviction while delivering a verdict. In a recent Dale Jr. Download episode, the veteran ruled out Joey Logano from the 2025 championship conversation. “Joey ain’t gonna make it,” he said. Then he went on to pick his favorite among his chosen Final Four candidates – and it ended on Roger Penske’s other champion. “Denny, Briscoe, Byron, Blaney…I feel like, as much as I think Blaney wins the championship between those four at Phoenix, I just feel like Byron does. I don’t know why. I don’t have any reason to think that. Honestly feel like Blaney wins it, but I keep picking Blaney every year.”

During the initial stretch of the regular season, Ryan Blaney ran into 7 DNFs. However, a crucial change in his pit crew yielded results, as he managed to finish the 26-race regular season second in the point standings. Despite Dale Jr.’s rising hopes, Blaney faces tough challenges in the cutthroat elimination format of the playoffs. NASCAR veteran Steve Letarte warned, “When the sample size is 26 weeks, he ended up second. Scored the second most points of anybody. But in a sample size of three, it’s hard to recover from a DNF, whether it’s your doing or somebody else’s. This format rewards winning and excellence.”

While Ryan Blaney works hard to fulfill his and Dale Jr.‘s ambitions, his teammates are doing the same. One of them may be lurking in the shadows.

Another Penske shocker on the way?

Last year, Joey Logano’s championship run was shocking. He dodged potential elimination from the round of 8 and middling points to put up a clutch performance. Similarly, another jaw-dropping phenomenon may be in the works – but this time for Austin Cindric. When he won the 2022 Daytona 500 and entered the playoffs, he was a natural Round of 16 elimination pick. Yet Cindric managed to survive, outlasting Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. In 2024 again, Cindric earned 10th-place results and a 13th-place finish in the Round of 16 races. With 25 stage points as a bonus, he cruised into the Round of 12. Unfortunately, crashes in that round prevented him from advancing further.

This quiet progress of Roger Penske’s oft-ignored driver is here again in 2025. Austin Cindric entered the playoffs with his Talladega victory and already delivered the best Penske finish in Darlington. He picked up valuable stage points and finished 8th in Stage 1, and overcame tight handling to finish 18th in the second stage. Finally, Cindric could clinch a 12th-place finish. He reflected on the race: “It was a decent night. We got a little behind in Stage 2. Had a bad pit stop and kind of got pinballed around on a few restarts and had to hit the full reset button. We really drove our way up through under green through the duration of Stage 3.” Now Cindric is 12 points above the elimination line with two races remaining in the Round of 16.

Clearly, two of Roger Penske’s drivers are doing well in the 2025 playoffs. Unfortunately, Joey Logano does not seem to be among them, as Dale Jr. agrees.