It wasn’t the best of days for Team Penske at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, especially considering the hype that their performance had built up after Joey Logano came back from the dead at Charlotte. Though he managed to finish a respectable P6 finish, his teammate Ryan Blaney’s day and car were both destroyed at Sin City, as he finished last.

On the last caution, Logano and his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, gambled on the tire strategy. While many decided to go with the usual four-tire change, they opted to go with just two. Post the race, Logano vented out his feelings on how, after all the high-stakes expectations, it could only end up being an “okay day” for them.

Joey Logano is upset but optimistic

Logano told Frontstretch, “We almost pissed everyone off again, can you imagine? Put it up there, you get up there and you’re hoping to get clean air and then you maintain. The #48 had the option to go 3-wide down the backstretch. We were pushing the #19 and going 3-wide as well.”

During the restart, Logano was in close proximity to Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe. Bowman had the option to either push Briscoe or attempt a three-wide maneuver down the backstretch, and he chose the former. This affected Logano’s ability to gain clean air and maintain his position.

“It’s kind of bittersweet that it’s been an okay day, but it’s obviously not good enough. All the Playoff cars hadn’t crashed. We had a great day and we nearly finished in the Top 5.”

Ultimately, it wasn’t the day he expected, given the multiple wins he’s had on this track. As for the two-tire strategy they chose to opt for, Logano was asked if this move was a good choice, provided he gets enough clean air support.

He said, “Yeah that was, you get out there and maybe two tyres just ain’t good enough. You can’t hide. Ready to get racing behind you, you have an opportunity. We lost the buffer cars on the first restart. Once we lost them, the four tyres went by. The run was getting shorter and tyres were equalling out. Maybe it won’t be that bad, it still wasn’t that bad. We’ve definitely bled some spots but we’re still in with a chance.”

Though starting up front can give anybody cleaner air to help go faster, Logano realized two tires still aren’t always enough to hold off his rivals. And take off the support of the “buffer cars,” as he says, it gets even tougher. With time, the four-tire cars kept passing him, but he still managed not to lose too much and finished top-10.

His final line, “We’re still in with a chance,” shows how he’s obviously not given up and is optimistic about the upcoming races at Talladega and Martinsville, where his experience will again turn handy.

Meanwhile, his teammate Ryan Blaney was devastated post the race after he had to retire following his tire, and his playoff chances amongst all are the slimmest.

Ryan Blaney has to win or go home

If the Vegas practice was not bad enough, the Cup race made it worse for Ryan Blaney. He started the race well from P14, and while he was contending fairly, on Lap 62, Blaney slammed hard into the wall on Turn 4. It looked like a right rear tire failure for him, damaging his car badly.

On the radio, he exclaimed, “I have no steering. Everything is f—–g broken. Everything is f—–g broken on it.”

His race was over in Stage 1 itself, and this was a huge blow to the No. 12 team. “No, I destroyed right front, right rear, destroyed everything,” he said with a visible sadness streaming down his face.

With playoff points slipping away, Blaney now faces the daunting task of winning one of the next two races to stay in contention, as points alone won’t be enough.

Post-race, like teammate, he too, remained optimistic: “I gotta be optimistic. I mean, yeah, I’m not very happy right now, but tomorrow morning I’ll be optimistic to go to the next race. So yeah, we’ve had good success in the next two events. Hopefully we can, you know, bring the speed and we’ll try to overcome the hole we put ourselves in today.”

Probably it’s this mental game of Team Penske that ultimately helps them do what they do in such high-pressure games, the ones they’re infamous for. With this DNF marking his eighth of the season, Blaney will surely look to bounce back at Talladega and Martinsville, hoping to salvage his playoff hopes before they slip away completely.