Penske Racing NNS Owners’ Championship Shows Strength in Organization

When people hear of the owners’ championship, most turn up their nose.

Why does it matter? Why do we have it? What is the point of it? Shouldn’t we just have one champion? Those are all good points that are made, but in reality, the owners’ championship is there for a reason.

For the case of this year’s owners’ champion – Penske Racing – it represents the strength of their No. 22 Discount Tire Ford team in 2013.

It’s tough in one breath to find the perfect combination of driver and crew chief that equals wins. Not every combination works together and sometimes it takes a driver going through a couple crew chiefs before the combination is found. A crew chief also has the job of setting the car up for that driver. By working with that same driver with multiple weekends, s/he gets used to what the driver wants.

Now imagine being able to win races with not only one driver – but four drivers. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins worked with Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, A.J. Allmendinger and Ryan Blaney and was able to win at least one race with each of them. Bullins won a total of 12 races this year as crew chief, including three in a row. Keselowski won six races in the No. 22, Logano won three races, Allmendinger won a pair (road courses) while Blaney picked up his first Nationwide Series win at Kentucky Speedway.

Of the 12 wins, Blaney’s was the most impressive for the simple fact of how young Blaney is (21 years old) and the fact it came in his second year running a part-time schedule in the series. He made 13 starts last year followed by three starts this year. He finished ninth at Iowa Speedway, before grabbing the win at Kentucky. He made a third start this year behind the No. 48 Autozone Ford, finishing 10th.

The owners’ championship was also something of importance to the team. When Brad Keselowski won the driver’s title a couple years ago, it was Joe Gibbs Racing picking up the owner’s title. In return, Roger Penske didn’t get a “owner’s trophy” and Keselowski wanted to be able to bring that to his car owner.

“That was something that was kind of left open on the RP bucket list,” Keselowski said. “It was nice to check that off for him and get him another leather jacket.  Proud of that and proud of the effort not just (at Homestead), but all year long for everybody and from everybody at Penske Racing.”

“When you think about it, as Brad came to me two or three years ago, said, We’re going to build a team,” Penske said. “Part of it was through the Nationwide.  Three or four drivers helped us get to this championship, it’s really something.  (The Homestead) win was something we didn’t know until the last couple laps.  That’s the way this NASCAR business is.

Certainly for us we didn’t get the owners’ championship back a couple years ago.  As I said to Brad, this kind of finishes it off. Without Joey and without Brad, without Sam, when you think about 14 wins in a season, in any series, is outstanding.  Really a credit to the entire team.  Everyone back at the shop, we talk about the engine builder, Ford, Discount Tire, Hertz, AAA, those that have helped us, are committed to us going forward.”

Penske also added that the championship is important for their sponsors. For sponsors to return to a team, they need to see success. There is no better way to show them that than by winning 12 races and a championship.

Though beyond that, Penske said it was seeing if they could beat JGR.

“J.D. and Joe are world‑class guys.  We respect them.  We like to race with them.  Kyle Busch obviously is one of the best guys out there,” Penske said. “I think it was just in our DNA from the beginning of the year.  Joey and Brad, it was one thing we could bring them together, drive the same car, get the speed out of it, consistency and the wins, I think brought our team closer together.  To me, that was part of the reason when Joey came on, Brad came on.  Said, We want to run Nationwide, we think it makes us better.

“The goal was to win.  Last year was a great year.  Brad was pretty humble on the job he did last year.  We had a good year this year.  Obviously it wasn’t what we want.  This is a sport, we’re in it for a long time.  We got to build.  Part of building is winning at some level.”

Penske Racing has stated that they will only be able to run one NNS car next year with the current sponsorship situation so look for this combination in 2014.

“At this particular time, I think we’ve said we’re going to run one Nationwide car at the moment,” Penske said after the final race of the season. “We have a sponsorship to run a couple other races.  Sam has some options right now, which is good.  Erwin obviously is contracted with us for next year.  He’ll work with us in Nationwide and some other things we’re going to be doing, also work with us on the testing.  He’s a real talent.  Can’t get guys like that very often.  We got a seat for him, for sure.”

Most likely, Keselowski and Logano will split most of the driving duties most likely while Blaney runs a part-time schedule once again to go with his full-time truck schedule for Brad Keselowski Racing.

The only negative in this scenario is the fact that Sam Hornish Jr. is left without a ride despite coming oh so close to winning the 2013 driver’s championship. That,my friends, is the only drawback to Cup drivers doing this type of schedule and Penske’s decision – in my opinion.

With that said, you cannot allow that decision to take away from the success and what they were able to do in 2013.