By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer

Though RFK Racing has gotten praise for competitive consistency across three cars, Sunday at Martinsville Speedway showed that Team Penske can do just the same.

With three cars in their infamous stable, the Ford trio showed up in the 400-lapper, with all cars scoring top-10 finishes on the day.

Ryan Blaney led the organization with a sixth-place finish. The two-time Martinsville winner avoided pit issues for the first time in weeks and scored a 41-point day.

“We were getting a little better each run so that was positive,” Blaney said. “I felt like I got two spots better each run, I could hang on a little longer and find rear drive.

“Honestly without the yellow during the cycle, I felt really good. I don’t know how it would have played out. Start of the race, we were about an eighth-place car and then we were a first-through-second-place car.”

During the final stint of the race, race dominator Denny Hamlin made contact with the No. 12 Ford, pinching him into the wall and forcing Blaney to lift off the gas.

“He just put me in the fence,” he said with a smile. “That’s what it looked like from my seat and if that’s the way it looked on TV then that’s what happened.

“I don’t know if it knocked the toe out a little bit. I was tight after that but thankfully we were able to get one or two spots back after that happened.”

As mentioned, pit crew No. 12 has experienced significant woes in 2026, pushing Blaney far back in the pack numerous times in recent weeks. Sunday saw an improvement in this regard.

“They had a good day, no mistakes, they were smooth all day,” he said. “That part was good, so I am proud of them for figuring out what they needed to figure out. A step in the right direction a nice day on pit road going into the off week and building off that.”

Joey Logano was the highest finisher of the Team Penske and overall Ford camp, running third on the afternoon. The No. 22 was a regular amongst the top five throughout the day, earning 12 points in the stages.

And entering Sunday near the Chase cutline, Logano pounced ahead of that mark with his first top-five finish since the Daytona 500.

“We had a top-five car,” Logano said. “The No. 9 [race winner Chase Elliott] made the right call… a pretty risky call, it could have gone the other way for him. The caution could have come out and trapped them.”

After a brutal weekend in Darlington — finishing 33rd and three laps down on pace — Sunday helps going into Easter weekend.

“It feels much better this weekend,” he said with a laugh. “It would have been tough going into an off-weekend after last week. It’ll be a little easier this week.

“It’s just a tough team. A bunch of old guys who have been doing this a long time to be honest [laughing]. That seems to help a lot of times when you have a struggling weekend and you have the heart-to-hearts that needed to happen and you move forward as a team.”

Austin Cindric perhaps needed this powerful Penske day the most, entering Martinsville 21st in the standings, last of the Team Penske cars.

Running top five throughout the day, he faded late to finish eighth. Still, the result is his second consecutive top-10 finish after a fifth in Darlington.

“It was nice to be able to manage the runs, manage the race,” Cindric said. “It’s really hard to do when you’re back in the pack and in traffic to manage the runs. That pays a price on tires and everything.

“Just having a race where you’re solidly inside the top 10, top five and being able to control that is really fun. I don’t get to do that as often as I’d like. Nobody does in this series, it’s highly competitive and you have to make the most of it when you have days like this.”

Cindric praised Team Penske for bringing three competitive cars, along with affiliate Wood Brothers Racing and Josh Berry, who scored a top 10.

“From a QC standpoint, our team is second-to-none,” he said. “We’ve been known for that even when we were all building our racecars. That’s a shoutout to the guys in the shop.

“Whether we’re going to Daytona or Martinsville, our cars are usually within a couple hundredths, a couple tenths here and there. I know those guys take a lot of pride in that and it shows on the racetrack.”