TALLADEGA, Ala. – With Team Penske’s superspeedway program being so superb in recent years, it seems like a prerequisite that being part of the powerhouse organization is the ability to achieve success at drafting-style tracks.
Short-track ace Josh Berry, driver for the Penske-aligned Wood Brothers Racing, would beg to differ. While the results haven’t been immediate, the Tennessee native has put in the effort to improve at drafting tracks and led a career-high 56 laps, including an opening stage victory, in the most recent trip to the drafting-style Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Although it’s been a brief tenure so far, being in the Penske pipeline has elevated Berry at these types of venues.
“One thing that helps is we’ve been qualifying really well,” Berry said. “That puts you in a good position and gets you a better pit stall. Things are starting to make a little more sense to me as to how to approach these races. I felt I worked really well with [Penske] in Atlanta and tried to piggyback off that coming here.”
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Mission accomplished in qualifying on Saturday.
Three-time Cup champion Joey Logano led the way for the Penske brigade and will start in third position for Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX). Austin Cindric slotted in seventh, with Berry and Ryan Blaney ranking eighth and ninth, respectively. Ford dominated the session, as Zane Smith from Front Row Motorsports – another Penske affiliate – earned his first Cup Series pole.
Between the season-opening Daytona 500 and Atlanta, the three in-house Penske cars have combined to lead 256 of 467 laps (54.8%). Both Logano and Cindric have already reached triple-digit laps out front on superspeedways in 2025. Add in Berry’s 56 laps led at Atlanta and the number increases to 312 of 467 (66.8%).
The finishes have been another story.
Blaney has the organization’s lone top five on drafting tracks, rebounding from a late spin to place fourth at Atlanta. Cindric was wrecked while battling for the lead in both races with under five laps remaining and has a best effort of eighth. Logano led a race-high 83 laps at Atlanta, but has yet to earn a top 10 in the opening two superspeedways in 2025 (best finish is 12th). Dating back to 2022, the No. 22 team has a best finish of 19th in the six Talladega races in the Next Gen car.
“There have been a lot of wrecks lately on the superspeedways – and they’ve been big,” Logano, who was in the middle of a 28-car pileup – the largest in NASCAR history – last fall at Talladega, said. “Unfortunately, if you look at the best speedway racers, you can probably count six or seven, they don’t win that often. They win stages and score a lot of points and lead a lot of laps, but they don’t always win. It’s because everybody wrecks and gets caught up in them. It’s the nature of the beast right now.
“The pushing is so aggressive with the cars, and the bumpers are round, and the cars don’t take the pushes very well, with the way everyone is sitting on the stops these days. Everyone is going to get more aggressive because you can get there because [the cars] handle so well. It’s just a recipe for disaster. It’s going to happen again, you just hope you’re in the right place and you get through it.”
Knowing the nature of superspeedways, Cindric doesn’t let himself get emotional over these races, believing it could be “counterproductive.” But having led double-digit laps in nine straight superspeedway starts, Cindric is always a factor.
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“We’ve led a ton of laps, whether it’s this year or other years and have had really fast race cars,” Cindric said. “Anytime you have that combination, you feel frustrated with not achieving the result that matches the performance.”
Dating back more than a decade, Penske entries have combined to win 10 of the last 21 Talladega races (four of those came from Brad Keselowski). Two of its current drivers have been honored in recent seasons — Logano on Friday evening — by being inducted into the Talladega Walk of Fame. Blaney received the award in 2023.