Team Penske‘s NASCAR competition director Travis Geisler said that his team needs to improve in all aspects to catch Hendrick Motorsports.
He gave an honest assessment when asked about the areas needed to improve in his team. “Oh, everywhere,” said Geisler. “It makes it easy to go to work.”
Hendrick Motorsports are the team to beat right now, having won the last five races, six including the All-Star Race. Penske driver Brad Keselowski said that HMS cars are “stupid fast” and coming second in the race these days seems like “an accomplishment”. Also having SMT (SportsMEDIA Technology) data have helped HMS maintain its superiority as Geisler reflects:
“You don‘t have the kind of dominance that those guys have had over the past six weeks without just a pretty incredible combination of things. Everybody‘s always asking, ‘What is it? What do we need to work on?‘ And it‘s kind of like anything; it‘s a lot of little things and a lot of stuff in all different areas.”
Blaney said that there is no panic in the team but they definitely need to need to catch Hendrick Motorsports.
“We‘ve got to get our cars better to where we can compete with them guys,” Blaney said. “Obviously they‘ve been really fast all year, but the past couple months, that whole group has just been spectacular. And honestly, the 5 has kind of made everyone look pretty silly.”
He said that the playoffs is all that matters but he wants the team to start running better before that and get some momentum.
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While Hendrick Motorsports might have won a lot more than Team Penske, the latter team’s drivers have all booked their spot in the playoffs. With still nine races to go in the regular season, Team Penske can win a number of races.
“Not panicked, but definitely realistic on the ground that needs to get covered here over the next couple of months,” Geisler said. “And then you‘ve got to be there when it counts at the end.”
Even if they don’t cover a lot, there will be all to race for in the postseason.