On one hand, there is Tyler Reddick, who is week in and week out not only the car to beat, but the driver who ends up winning the NASCAR race. So far he has won five out of nine. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s Ford drivers, who are neither expected to win nor are they running in contention of winning a race as a group.
Team Penske’s Kansas suffering raises Ford concerns
So far in the 2026 season, Ford has just had one win to its name when Ryan Blaney won at Phoenix. Apart from that, Ford simply hasn’t been in the mix. This was something which was once again evident in the Kansas Cup race.
As Eric Estepp pointed out, “So far this race is nearly identical to Las Vegas. JGR vs Hendrick with 23XI sprinkled in. RFK has top 10 speed but not top 5. Penske nowhere to be found. Trackhouse nowhere to be found.”
So far this race is nearly identical to Las Vegas.
JGR vs Hendrick with 23XI sprinkled in. RFK has top 10 speed but not top 5. Penske nowhere to be found. Trackhouse nowhere to be found.
— Eric Estepp (@EricEstepp17) April 19, 2026
It’s worth mentioning that Estepp’s post was during the race. But at the end of it, the Fords were locked out of top 5 as Brad Keselowski came home in 6th as the highest finishing Ford driver.
As for the Penske duo of Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, two drivers who have four Cup championships between them, they finished 24th and 30th, respectively. In fact, of all the Ford drivers this season, it is the Penske duo who are having a disappointing season riddled with inconsistencies.
Following his win at Phoenix, Blaney finished inside top 20, top 5, top 10, top 5, and outside top 20. In Logano’s case, it’s even worse. After starting season in third place at Daytona, he didn’t finish inside the top 10 until Martinsville.
But comparing that to last year at this stage of the season, Logano and Blaney were running more or less identically.
Having said that, upon looking at their last season, especially in the case of Joey Logano and his past few seasons, it is clear that Penske is a team which has found its groove and delivered results as the season progresses. In 2025, Logano had one win and one top 5 finish in the first half of the season. But in the second half, he had five top 5s. In Blaney’s case, the first half saw six top 5s and one win. But going forward, he ended up winning 3 more races and five top 5s.
But that trajectory worked in the playoff format. In the Chase format, where points are important, and consistency is more important than a race win preceeded and followed by inconsistent results, Penske’s approach doesn’t work. Even though Blaney is currently in third in points, he lost one spot to Denny Hamlin after Kansas.
Similarly, Logano, who is at present in fourteenth, lost a couple of spots as well.
So the big problem at hand for Ford and Team Penske in particular is their lack of challenge and contention for race wins. And that incited some strong reactions from the fans.
Fans not happy with the state of Penske and Ford in 2026
Following the Cup race at Kansas, where Team Penske and Ford were once again behind Toyota and Chevrolet drivers, one driver simply concluded, “Ford just isn’t good this year.”
This is reflected in the fact that Ford is 141 points behind Chevrolet and Toyota. They also have only two drivers in the top 10 of championship standings in Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski.
But coming back to how their race at Kansas turned out, one fan called out, “Penske is terrible, your two championship drivers should not be a lap down by the end of stage two.” Another fan demanded, “Someone at Penske/Ford needs to be fired.”
It’s worth mentioning that in the case of Blaney, a lot of his race results have been compromised because of his poor pit stops this season, which reportedly have cost him close to 100 spots. This did lead to Penske making some changes to his pit crew ahead of Kansas.
But one fan made a crucial point about where Ford has gone wrong and Toyota has gone right. “I think this highlights certain teams really haven’t adjusted from the win and your in era. You can’t get away with no shows or hyper specialization on certain tracks anymore,” the fan said.
To this fan’s point, Ford teams and Team Penske had developed a specialization for certain tracks like Phoenix and Atlanta in the playoffs. And that often meant they win at one of those tracks, progress ahead, and start focusing on the next round. However, now the playoff system is gone, and every race matters, irrespective of the track.
One fan asked NASCAR to “Change the package, teams are dialed on the cookie cutters now.” Now, to be fair, a change in package seems highly unlikely considering NASCAR bumped up the HP, and updated the aero package for certain tracks for this season.
Nevertheless, whether it takes a NASCAR regulation change that favors Ford’s current status, which is unlikely to happen, or whether Ford and its team like Team Penske get a hold of themselves and start contending for wins, that is something only time will tell.
