Heading into New Hampshire, all eyes were on Joe Gibbs Racing. All three playoff drivers on the Toyota team swept the Round of 16. What is more, JGR’s dominance at the ‘Magic Mile’ is nothing unknown – Christopher Bell was the defending winner while Hamlin owns three trophies. But the gap in pace between JGR cars and Team Penske cars was visible right from practice to qualifying. And Ryan Blaney’s crew chief just divulged that Joey Logano is a big reason for it.

The Mobil 1 301 race concluded with much pomp and glory for the Ford bandwagon. Ryan Blaney led for 116 laps and won the first stage, eventually taking the final lead with 39 laps to go and grabbing the victory. Similarly, his teammate, Joey Logano, led for a race-high 147 laps and won Stage 2. This dominance was the result of an event that happened two months ago.

Joey Logano is the focus of the conversation again

Well, it is an odd year for the No. 22 Ford driver. Although his championship chances are lower than before (Joey Logano won titles in even years: 2018, 2022, 2024), Joey Logano is doing his best to help his team. In late July, Goodyear held a tire test at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Three drivers were present – Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, and Logano. And as it turned out, the latter was able to capitalize on it the best. Logano captured the pole position for the Magic Mile’s playoff race, with his teammate, Ryan Blaney, starting from the runner-up spot. Even Josh Berry, a driver for Penske affiliate Wood Brothers Racing, led for 10 laps and hounded Blaney for the win.

Hence, Ryan Blaney’s crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, had some clarity to share with the media. In the post-victory press conference, he credited Joey Logano: “Yeah, we were fortunate that Joey was able to come here and test.” Hassler further expanded on how team unity went a long way for this win, adding, “I give Joey and Paul a lot of credit for getting through a lot of things, you know, at the test, that made a lot of our cars faster. We all worked together to kind of go through the things that were tested. And you know, the different philosophies that have and haven’t worked out throughout the year. And make sure that we were all as competitive as we could be when we showed up.”

Even Christopher Bell was present at the tire test. The No. 20 Toyota driver could carve out a 6th-place finish now. But since he could not share the same insights with his team members, the latter could not do better. What is more, seeds of disunity were sown during the race with an exchange of barbs between Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs. Chase Briscoe finished 10th, Hamlin 12th, and Gibbs suffered a DNF.

What is more, Ryan Blaney‘s confidence should sound an alarm for his rivals. The 2023 Cup Series champion expressed supreme faith in his team after the win: “It’s a championship-contending team. It’s a championship-winning team a couple of years ago. It’s pretty much the same group of guys. My mindset really hasn’t changed. I believed we can do it all season, and this win doesn’t make me believe we can do it even more than what I felt like going through the whole year.”

Although Jonathan Hassler divulged the real secret behind the victory now, a competitor had a clue prior to the race.

Detecting the dominance early

Well, Ford is re-surging around the same time it does every year. After deceiving its competitors for most of the year, the OEM goes all out in the playoffs and capitalizes on clutch performances. However, not everybody was oblivious to this recurrent trend. Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, and Josh Berry swept the podium starting spots for New Hampshire. This fiery dominance got 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace thinking. And he guessed what Jonathan Hassler recently admitted, saying before the race, “I mean, we expected to be quicker than what we were. And yeah, so looks like the Penske tire test is paying off for those boys in the top three right now.”

Bubba Wallace himself qualified 14th for the 301-lap event, posting a lap time of 29.485 seconds. Meanwhile, his teammate, Tyler Reddick, grabbed a frontrunner spot of fourth, recording 29.356 seconds. Wallace had looked forward to fighting it out. “I think you gotta intensify a little bit more, you know. We’re in by one or two, whatever it is. And so it’s going to take, it takes everything. The last round took everything as well, but it’s more defined on this one, I would say.” He added, “I think the base hits mentality is just don’t let the highs get too high, lows get too low. Just go out and lap by lap, make the right moves, let the little stuff go to focus on the big stuff later.” However, as most of the Toyota drivers’ fates went, the 23XI drivers hit lows. Wallace washed up in 26th place and Reddick in 21st place.

As Team Penske soars ahead, Toyota drivers have work to do. Let’s wait and see if the OEM can match up to Joey Logano and Co.’s tricks.