LAS VEGAS – There was no catching Kevin Harvick in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but if there’s any consolation, Team Penske had a strong day in Sin City.
Ford continued their early season Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series dominance by swiping the pole and the win in the third race of the season, and while Team Penske couldn’t deliver their first victory of the season, any speed-related issues from 2017 appear to be something from the distant past.
Ryan Blaney secured his third career Cup pole and led the opening lap of the race, but his No. 12 Menards / Pennzoil Ford team battled back from an ill-handling race car during Stage 1 and the onset of Stage 2 to propel the High Point, N.C.-native to a competitive fifth-place finish and his second top-10 result of 2018.
“I thought it was a solid day for us,” said Blaney. “We had a pretty decent Ford all day. The first run we weren’t great and we got better. I thought our strongest run was right before the last green flag pit stops. We lost a little speed the last run there.
“Overall it was a good weekend for us. That is what we need to do, just have good, consistent weekends like that.”
Blaney is optimistic that his No. 12 team can keep pace of their Sunday performance for the remaining West Coast races at Phoenix and Fontana the next two weeks.
“Hopefully we can do the same for the rest of this west coast swing and the rest of the season,” Blaney spoke. “We will see.”
Defending Las Vegas winner Brad Keselowski never led a lap, but the presence of his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Fusion was felt throughout the 267-lap race.
Juggling through the balance of his race car, Keselowski ran as high as third before settling for sixth and his second top-10 of the season.
After the race, Keselowski was baffled that his car was quicker on short runs, rather than long runs, something he thought was going to be the complete opposite before the race.
“We had really good short-run speed and I thought we would be really good on the long runs today, but it turned out we were really good on the short runs,” the 2014 Cup Series champion said.
“That wasn’t at all what I was expecting. The short-run speed was really strong, but I just couldn’t get anywhere to capitalize on it.”
The Rochester Hills, Mich. native propelled five spots in the standings from 12th to seventh heading to ISM (Phoenix) Raceway next weekend.
After struggling to produce any kind of speed during the summer and fall months last year, Joey Logano had speed back in his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford, allowing him to lead 25 laps before finishing seventh.
Logano thought they were better than where they finished.
“We were better than seventh,” he sounded. “We ran up top-five most of the day and got to the lead for a little bit and took two. We were the only car that took two and the run went really long, and we lost a lot of track position there as we fell back on the two tires. We never got a caution to kind of reset and get those spots back.
“We faded back to seventh, a little further back even, but were able to get a couple spots back. Overall, we have been solid with the Pennzoil Ford all season. That was a solid race. Pit crew did a good job. We have okay speed in the car.
“We aren’t anywhere close to the 4 (Harvick) but we are competitive with the rest. We will keep working toward that. It is a decent start for us and I think we are second in points. We are running hard and running strong right now. We just have to find a bit more to be able to beat Kevin (Harvick).”
Even though Logano and his Todd Gordon-led team posted their third consecutive top-10 finish to open the season, Logano fell to second in the championship standings, just three points behind Harvick after the first of three races in NASCAR’s West Coast Swing.
To add an exclamation point to Team Penske’s solid outing at Las Vegas, Paul Menard, a Team Penske satellite operation produced a ninth-place finish aboard Wood Bros. Racing, No. 21 Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford – delivering the Eau Claire, Wisc. native’s second top-10 of 2018.
“Just a solid day for the Motorcraft Ford Fusion,” said Menard. “A great weekend for us. We unloaded fast on Friday and fell behind a bit on Saturday. We all got together last night and talked about what we needed to do, and it worked out for us. A solid car all day.”
Menard credited his Wood Bros. pit crew for the good finish that allowed him to maintain ninth in the championship standings.
“They made great stops all day which helped me keep track position,” he added. “We made some good adjustments and Greg (Erwin) called a great race. A good two weeks for the crew guys.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
