There’s no one better than Penske at Gateway. The team has shown impressive speed each of the three times the series has visited and has the best average finish of any organization at the track.
That’s certainly valuable at Gateway, but the Penske drivers disagree on how valuable that speed can be for the rest of the Playoffs. Specifically, some see Gateway as an indication of performance at Phoenix.
Ryan Blaney highlighted that the two low-banked tracks feel quite similar behind the wheel.
“I feel like this place, it’s not exactly shaped like Phoenix, but I feel like the corners are similar,” Blaney described.
“As far as [turns] 1 and 2 here and 3 and 4 at Phoenix, it’s kind of like a tight entry and a wide exit. The other ends are really long, sweeping, flat corners. So, yeah, I feel like there are some similarities.”
Teammate Joey Logano agreed that Gateway was the ‘most similar’ track to Phoenix. That leaves Logano to believe that running well at Gateway directly correlates to speed at Phoenix.
Blaney is a little more hesitant. He said that Gateway can be a useful test of how the car is responding at the flat tracks when determining how to update the Phoenix setup from earlier in the year, but highlighted that it’s about finding the right bits of the data to focus on.
“It’s tough because you ran in the spring at Phoenix and then you’ve learned a lot since then so it’s kind of hard to compare notes,” Blaney said. “We kind of try to mis-match everything and see if you can hit the right one.”
On the other hand, Austin Cindric suggested that Gateway didn’t offer much more than any other track when determining the Phoenix setup. Just because both are flat tracks, he said, doesn’t mean they’re the same. New Hampshire, another flat track, wouldn’t feature in the Phoenix setup, Cindric said.
“There are not a whole lot of takeaways that we can take away from here at St. Louis and go apply to Phoenix other than maybe gathering some trends. The ends are so different and the loads are different. The demands from the drivetrain are different. It’s kind of that way with a lot of those tracks.”
If qualifying is any indication, that might be a good sign for Penske. Ryan Blaney will start fifth at Gateway, but the rest of the team will start a bit further back. Austin Cindric qualified ninth, allied driver Josh Berry will start 12th, and Joey Logano will start 13th.
It’s not insurmountable, but Penske isn’t starting the weekend with quite the same speed as past years.
Nevertheless, Gateway is a place that works for the team. Blaney said that he believes there are certain tracks and teams that just work gel.
“I’ve always said, like, tracks and teams, it kind of sometimes lines up with their mentality,” Blaney described. “So it’s just kind of one of those things, and I feel like we’ve hit this place pretty well in the past.”
Nevertheless, he said part of Penske’s attitude is a refusal to rest on its laurels.
“But you can’t just rely on that, you’re trying to get better and try and do things that you think is the right direction for your company,” said Blaney. “It’s important to not get locked into one thing, even though it’s working for you, since the competition is always getting better.
“So, yeah, I think it has fit really well with what we do as a company, but you’ve got to stay on top of that stuff.”
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