By Matt Crider, Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas — Team Penske drivers have won the last three NASCAR Cup Series championships, but they didn’t find Victory Lane in 2025 until the 10th race of the season, last week at Talladega. After Sunday’s showing at Texas Motor Speedway, Penske is in a much more comfortable position.

Defending champion Joey Logano picked up his first win of the year in the Wurth 400 and teammate Ryan Blaney finished third, capitalizing on performance that the organization’s three cars have had throughout the season.

Austin Cindric, the Talladega winner, led three times for 60 laps at TMS before getting caught up in a late crash involving Brad Keselowski.

“We’ve had speed all year,” Blaney said. “It was nice that the last couple weeks we’ve gotten a car in victory lane, so that’s good. Hopefully we can join ’em.”

Blaney was on the front row for the final three restarts, but Logano pulled ahead in the No. 22 Ford and sailed to the overtime victory.

“It’s whoever gets the lead, it doesn’t matter,” Blaney said. “I didn’t do a great job on the restarts. I didn’t pick the right lane a couple of times. I just didn’t do anything right, didn’t have a shot to win and never got the lead — and that’s how you win the race. 

“I didn’t take the front row one time and [Michael McDowell] got the lead because I didn’t think the top was very good at all. It was pretty dirty, and the one time I have a shot to do it and don’t do it, the guy gets the lead. So I just didn’t do a good job and then it was hard to get it after that — didn’t get a good push and just could never hang with them over in [Turns] 3 and 4.”

Each Penske driver has led the most laps in a race this season.

“Team Penske had brought good, competitive cars for the first 11 races,” Executive Vice President Walt Czarnecki said. “We’ve been in the hunt in every one of them. We’ve qualified very well and had the chance to win some other races, now two in a row. I hope that’s a real momentum builder for us. … Blaney’s time is coming too.”

Crew chief Paul Wolfe directed Logano to his first top-five finish and second top-10 of the year, and he talked about Penske’s strength.

“Blaney surely could have won multiple races, and I really appreciate that relationship we have amongst our team, specifically the 12 — we work very closely together,” Wolfe said. “And it’s kind of ironic how at the end of the race we were racing [Blaney] for the win today.”

Blaney’s fourth top-five result was his best of the season.

“We really didn’t do it with strategy; we just kind of passed cars,” Blaney said. “I thought our car was really good, and I just couldn’t get control of the race. But overall — proud day, fast car.

“Driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job, so I appreciate the 12 car was a fast car. Just can’t do anything right currently, so hopefully it will work itself out.”

Logano earned his 37th career victory and second in Fort Worth.

“The sport changes so quickly. It is crazy how you can just ride these roller coasters. I am so proud of the team,” Logano said. “A couple of times we had a really tough pit stall situation, and the pit crew did a good job of managing that. We just grabbed a couple [positions] here and there. The car was fast — I knew that yesterday. I just did a poor job qualifying. We just were grinding it out, a couple here and a couple there and eventually we get the win. It is nice to get one — really nice.”

Cindric won Stage 1 and finished 25th, three laps down.

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:

POS. DRIVER

2nd – Ross Chastain

4th – Kyle Larson

6th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

7th – Austin Dillon

10th – Daniel Suarez

· Ross Chastain earned his season-best finish at Texas Motor Speedway, driving his No. 1 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet to a runner-up finish in the Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY. Chastain led the Bowtie brigade to five top-10 finishes in the series’ 12th race of the 2025 season, with Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet team tallying a fourth-place finish; Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in sixth; Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon in seventh; and Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez rounding out the top-10.

· Taking the green flag from the fourth starting position, Kyle Larson remained steady in the top-five through much of the opening stage – ultimately taking the first green-white checkered flag in the fourth position. Reporting loose conditions in Turns One and Two in the closing laps of Stage One, crew chief Cliff Daniels brought the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet down pit road during the stage break for four tires, fuel and a round of adjustments. Gaining one position in the race off pit road, Larson took the inside line of the second row to take the green flag for Stage Two. Wasting no time, Larson quickly settled into the second position behind then-race leader Josh Berry, going on to inherit the lead when Berry spun to bring out the caution. The 32-year-old Elk Grove, California, native went on to stay atop the leaderboard to tally his series-leading sixth stage win of the season. After a four-tire stop during the final stage break, Larson lined up in the fourth position for the final 96 laps around the 1.5 Texas oval. Staying steady at the front of the field, a series of late-race cautions proved to be a challenge for Larson, but the former series champion rallied home with a fourth-place finish.

· Following his first career pole in NASCAR’s top division, Carson Hocevar and the No. 77 Spire Motorsports team remained a steady fixture in the top-10 throughout the first two stages – tallying sixth-place points in each stage. A strong day went south when Hocevar was caught up in a multi-car accident with just 31 laps remaining. Going to work on their Chevrolet-powered machine, Hocevar only fell two laps down to salvage a 25th-place finish.

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Texas Motor Speedway:

Wins: 18

Poles: 17

Top-Fives: 82

Top-10s: 192

Chevrolet’s season statistics with 12 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:

Wins: 3

Poles: 6

Top-Fives: 22

Top 10s: 53

Stage Wins: 9
UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Kansas Speedway with the AdventHealth 400 on Sunday, May 11, at 3 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes:

Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 2nd

“Starting 31st, we wanted to go +30 positions today. It’s all on this crew – the engineering group at Trackhouse Racing and the group at Chevrolet. We made an adjustment during the race and it fixed the car. All the problems we had yesterday and the start of the race, they were gone. I was confident. I was not confident yesterday.. you heard me in the booth say it. With just one adjustment, it brought this Tootsies Chevy to life and that’s why you keep fighting.”

Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 4th

“(Michael) McDowell just did a really good job of timing the restarts. He left pretty much when I did, and he had a push behind him. He got clear to the lead and I just lost control of the race there. It was a bummer to do that. If I could have kept the lead, we would have been hard to beat in clean air like that. Just a little frustrated with myself, but all-in-all, it was a good points day for us today. The No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a great job today. The car was good. We’ll just study it and try to do a better job next time.”

Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the final stage.

Finished: 35th

Bowman on the accident that ultimately ended his day early in the finale stage:

“I just saw guys wrecking in front of me. I tried to get high. The No. 16 (AJ Allmendinger) came back across the track and we all piled in there. I hate that for this team. We had a really fast No. 48 Ally Chevrolet. I think we passed more cars than anyone’s ever passed at Texas (Motor Speedway). We just shouldn’t have been back there to begin with. Really bummed, but we’ll move onto the next one.”

Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 26th

“I just really hate it for everyone on this No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet team. We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position. Joey (Logano) got a run there, and I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you could probably go. When (Ryan) Blaney slid in front of me, it just took the air off of it and I just lost the back of it. I still had the fight in me, but I probably should have conceded at that point.

Just proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports. I know that’s not the day that we wanted, but we had the opportunity to win the race. I’m really proud of everyone at the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop – you guys saw those restarts, the motors were ripping. Just hate that we didn’t get it done, but we knew we had to go for it.”

Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 22nd

“A decent finish today for my SafetyCulture team. Just wasn’t comfortable with the car there at the start and struggled to find speed. Thanks to my 88 crew for never giving up and continuing to work to make my Chevrolet better and better. We will learn from this and continue to make improvements.”

Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 10th

Suarez on his two consecutive top-10 finishes:

“It was a good day for this No. 99 Kubota Chevrolet team. We had decent speed out there. I think that we potentially had a little bit more, but we were struggling a lot on restarts all day long, except for the start of the race for some reason. All-in-all, it was a decent day and it’s good to get back-to-back top-10 finishes.”

GM PR

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri won his fourth race of 2025, beating teammate Lando Norris in an action-packed Miami Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri made it a hat-trick of wins with victory in the Miami Grand Prix as McLaren enjoyed a one-two on the podium to continue their dominant Formula One season.

The Australian driver finished 4.6 seconds ahead of British teammate Lando Norris, with George Russell of Mercedes finishing third but 37.6 seconds behind.

The victory on Sunday was the third in a row for Piastri after his wins in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and his fourth in the six races so far this season.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen, who started on pole, finished in fourth place with Alex Albon of Williams fifth and 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes in sixth.

“I was aware enough to avoid Max in turn one, and from then I knew I had a good pace advantage,” Piastri said. “The car was incredible today.

“The hard stint I was struggling a little bit, so there are some things to work on. Got to keep learning, but very happy to be leaving Miami on top.

“Two years ago here, we were the slowest team, I think we got lapped twice. Here, we just won the race by 35 seconds,” he added.

Piastri, who started at fourth on the grid, grabbed the lead on lap 14 when Verstappen took the inside line but was too late on the brakes and went wide.

“Brakes man, honestly, useless,” the Dutchman told his team radio and the Red Bull driver, a two-time winner at Miami, was not to get a sniff of the lead again.

Norris went on the hunt for Verstappen but by the time he got ahead, after some jousting on lap 17, Piastri had opened up a 9-second lead.

“It’s never the best feeling [to be second] but the team has done an amazing job, so I can’t fault them at all,” said Norris.

“We were up the road so it is a good feeling. Oscar drove well, Max put up a good fight as always so it is what it is. I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today, but still happy to be second,” he said.

Russell had finished behind his teammate Antonelli in qualifying but after some frustration in the sprint race as well, he was glad to be on the podium.

“Really happy to come away with P3 as I have been struggling this weekend personally. Well done to the McLaren, they were just too far down the road,” he said.

It was another disappointing day for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc finishing seventh and Lewis Hamilton a place behind.

Hamilton, in his first season with the Italian team, expressed frustration with his team’s tactics several times during the race, especially after he was instructed to let Leclerc pass him.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz faced a steward investigation after his aggressive attempt to overtake Hamilton on the final corner resulted in a clash of wheels.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Reigning NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano overcame a lot to finally get his first victory this season.

It came a week after Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric’s win at Talladega, where Logano had a fifth-place finish that became 39th after a postrace inspection found an issue with the spoiler on his No. 22 Ford. There was also Logano’s expletive-laden rant on the radio toward his teammate in the middle of that race the two smoothed out during the week. Oh, and he started 27th at Texas after a bad qualifying effort on the 1.5-mile track.

But Logano surged ahead on the restart in overtime Sunday to win in the 11th race this year. He led only seven of the 271 laps, four more than scheduled.

“After what happened last week, to be able to rebound and come right back, it’s a total ‘22’ way of doing things. So proud of the team,” Logano said.

On the final restart after the 12th caution, Logano was on the inside of his other teammate, Ryan Blaney. But Logano pulled away on the backstretch and stayed easily in front the final 1½ laps, while Ross Chastain then passed Blaney to finish second ahead of him.

“Just slowly, methodically,” Logano said of his progression to the front. “Just kept grinding, a couple here and a couple there and eventually get a win here.”

Logano got his 37th career victory, getting the lead for the first time on lap 264. He went low to complete a pass of Michael McDowell.

“I mean there’s always a story next week, right,” Logano said. “So I told my wife last week before we left, I said watch me go win this one. It’s just how we do stuff.”

On a caution with 47 laps left, McDowell took only two tires and moved up 15 spots to second. He ended up leading 19 laps, but got loose a few laps after getting passed by Logano and crashed to bring out the caution that sent the race to overtime. He finished 26th.

“We were giving it everything we had there to try to keep track position,” McDowell said. “Joey got a run there, and I tried to block it. I went as far as I think you could probably go. When Blaney slid in front of me, it just took the air off of it and I just lost the back of it. I still had the fight in me, but I probably should have conceded at that point.”

Hamlin had finished on the lead lap in 21 consecutive races, but a fiery finish on lap 75 ended that streak that had matched the eighth-longest in NASCAR history. He was the first car out of the race.

After the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota lost power, something blew up when Hamlin recycled the engine. There were flames coming out from under the car and it was engulfed in smoke by time it rolled to a stop on the inside of the track and Hamlin climbed out unharmed.

Carson Hocevar, the 22-year-old driver who is McDowell’s teammate with Spire Motorsports, was the youngest polesitter ever in Texas. He led only the first 22 laps of the race, losing it while pitting during the first caution. He finished 24th after a late accident.

Both in-race stages finished under caution. Cindric won Stage 1 after Hamlin’s issues and Kyle Larson took the second after a yellow flag came out because of debris on the track after the right rear tire on Chris Buescher’s car came apart.

Larson got his 68th overall stage win and his sixth at Texas, with both marks being records. He has won a stage in each of the last five Cup races at Texas, starting in his 2021 win there.

Notes: William Byron, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott remained the top four in season points. … Elliott left Texas last spring with his first victory after 42 races and 18 months without one. He hasn’t won since, and now he has another long winless drought — this one 38 races and now nearly 13 months after finishing 16th. … A crew member for Christopher Bell crawled in through the passenger side of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and was fully in the car to reconnect an air hose the driver’s helmet during a caution in the second stage. It took two stops during that caution, and twice climbing into the car, to resolve the issue.