MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Is Team Penske the team to watch as the 2026 Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship is now here? 

For drivers Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, especially, there are some tracks that have some very high highs for them but also some very low lows -- especially Logano.

Don't forget about teammate Austin Cindric, either. While not a title contender, there are some things to be said about him. 

Tyler Jones: When you consider that Ford took awhile to figure things out and Blaney was overcoming it, one could argue that he’s been the best driver in the Cup Series this season.

Blaney has done something that the favorite in Hamlin hasn’t done and that’s win a championship. Unfortunately for him, the title will not be decided at Phoenix where he won earlier this season and where Team Penske has dominated.

There’s a strong case to be made that Blaney could win his second career championship. He enters The Chase with three wins but the biggest question mark isn’t him. Can Ford give him consistent race-winning speed? We shall see…

Jonathan Fjeld: This is one guy to watch out for, even starting this far back in the Chase and seriously lacking speed on some of the Chase tracks.

Seriously. Darlington, 30th. Kansas, 30th. Las Vegas, 15th, where he’s a multi-time winner.

However, Indianapolis showed the Chase could be different. A high-speed track that usually shows whose cars are hot and whose are not, Joey Logano’s No. 22 car rapidly caught up to two Toyotas in the final run. Although he couldn’t get by, Logano finally showed speed.  

Why? A rule change reportedly changed the composition of the splitters on the cars that could minimize Toyota’s advantage over the field. 

Darlington is the first test. If Logano is fast, watch out. You don’t want Logano to get hot and if he has a hot race at Darlington, he could parlay that into success at Gateway, Bristol and the intermediate tracks that will define the Chase and Talladega, where he has racked up points.

Still, starting almost a full race out will put the Toyotas in spot to do what they want to, instead of needing to do something to get closer to the Cup. They have the speed, they have everything. 

Yet, that type of challenge could be exactly what motivates Logano in his mythical even year.

JF: The equivalent of a 9-8 team, Austin Cindric making the Chase is a great accomplishment for them. If nothing else happens this season, they’ve gotten the job done.

However, this is Team Penske. With champion teammates like Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, who have won multiple times this year and improved speed, he should be expected to win.

Cindric’s strength is consistency. He only had three finishes of 14th or worse in the second half of the regular season and has shown the most consistent speed of any Penske car from start to now this season, while Logano has ran in the 30s in some of the Chase tracks coming up.

Cindric isn’t a championship contender but his consistency could get him to a top-10 points finish and possibly a win in the postseason.