NASCAR takeaways: Ryan Blaney caps big Penske weekend in NASCAR, IndyCar

LONG POND, Pa. — Ryan Blaney climbed out of his race car following his second win of the 2024 season and the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion perhaps unintentionally put the other teams on notice.

"We are in a better spot at this time this year than where we were last year at this point," Blaney said after Sunday's victory at Pocono Raceway. "I feel like our speed is better. Our execution is great." 

And with that, the Team Penske driver definitively showed he is a viable threat to repeat as champion as five races remain in the regular season. Winning by 1.3 seconds at Pocono and leading a race-high 44 laps, Blaney benefitted from a pit strategy that put him out front at the right time to hold off the field. Speeding penalties late to Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson didn't hurt.

Blaney said he wasn't trying to make a statement to the rest of the field.

"They take it how they want it, but I just try to focus on our deal," Blaney said. "I try not to get too focused on everyone else's stuff. ... It's a big testament to [my team] of figuring out where we need to be better and figuring out the areas we needed to improve on from the start of year with this car and the new Ford nose."

It was a big weekend for Team Penske as not only did Blaney win the Cup race, but Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Will Power swept the IndyCar doubleheader weekend at Iowa. It gives the organization momentum going into next week's Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a track owned by team owner Roger Penske and where Penske driver Josef Newgarden won the Indy 500 in May.

"You definitely always want to make cool weekends," Blaney said. "We had the pleasure of sweeping last year at Indy 500 and the 600 [at Charlotte]. ... Now we have a unique opportunity to go and sweep Indianapolis in IndyCar and NASCAR and that's a special deal.

"We're going to enjoy this and appreciate it, celebrate it, but that [one at Indy] is one we have circled. We don't even talk about it in our camp. You know that is a huge one for RP [Penske] and it is full speed ahead to Indy."

Takeaways from Pocono where seven-time Pocono winner Denny Hamlin finished second, Alex Bowman was third and William Byron and Joey Logano rounded out the top 5:

Another Frustrating Busch Day

The frustrations continue for Kyle Busch, whose 32nd-place finish was his sixth finish of 27th or worse in his last eight races.

Busch nearly didn't get to the starting grid as his crew saw an oil leak while on pit road just prior to the race. The Richard Childress Racing team had to replace an oil line and got completed just as the prerace ceremonies were about to conclude.

He ran near the back all day, maybe making minimal gains until a restart with 40 laps ago ended his day when Corey LaJoie tried to look underneath him and as Busch tried to protect the position, LaJoie clipped him in the rear of his car.

"You have mirrors and cameras and everything else so you try to get in front of the run that's coming and I was trying to get in front of that run and sometimes some don't lift [behind you going] kamikaze," Busch said. 

LaJoie said he hated that their contact took out some good cars.

"I got to the left rear of the 8 [of Busch] and he blocked it once and I just kind of held the wheel straight and I was almost anticipating our bumpers kind of lining up and giving him a little bit of a shove — but when he blocked it the second time, it turned him across my nose," LaJoie said.

Hamlin Can't Repeat

Denny Hamlin couldn't repeat at Pocono, a track where he has won seven Cup races. He came up a couple of seconds short as Blaney pitted prior to the end of the second stage, which Hamlin went on to win. When Hamlin pitted after the stage was over, he was behind Blaney (who had stayed out at the break).

Hamlin ended an uncharacteristic streak of five consecutive finishes outside the top 10.

"We were terrible for a month-and-a-half or so in our finishes, not in our performance," Hamlin said. "It feels good to have at least a solid day leaving here."

Hamlin said he wasn't surprised that Blaney was strong even though Team Penske's strength this year had been more on the shorter tracks than a 2.5-mile track such as Pocono.

"I thought in practice, while I was quicker on the short run, I thought that he was actually pretty good," Hamlin said. "You get a car out front, it's going to go automatically a lot faster than what you've seen all day.

"And that was probably the first time that the 12 [of Blaney] had gotten some track position [after the second stage], so he was finally able to show some of the speed that he had."

Bowman Follows Up Win With Third

Alex Bowman followed up his win a week earlier at Chicago with a third-place finish. Those were his best two finishes since placing second in the Daytona 500.

He moved from 13th to 10th in the Cup standings in the past couple of weeks.

"There's certainly still things we need to do to be better, things I need to do to be better, our team, kind of across the board," Bowman said. "You can always improve. At least we're pointed in the right direction."

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.