LONG POND, Pa. — Brad Keselowski drew an early penalty for his crew’s improper body modification. Teammate Joey Logano was punished by a different sort of body modification — improper or not — courtesy of Ryan Newman‘s front bumper.

Despite sustaining unexpected creases to their cars early on, both Team Penske drivers orchestrated massive comebacks and stretched their fuel mileage for top-five finishes in Monday’s rain-delayed Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway. Keselowski stormed from the tail of the field to a third-place result, while Logano made gains from midpack to snare the fifth spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ first visit this season to the 2.5-mile track.

Both Penske Fords started on the front row, with Logano getting the jump on the 40-car field on the initial green flag. Pole-winner Keselowski lurked close behind, but NASCAR race officials cited the team on Lap 24 for unapproved body modifications. Video footage revealed that the No. 2’s jack man had pushed in the car’s right side, potentially providing it an aerodynamic edge.

“Of course it is frustrating. I don’t know what they saw so it is not really fair for me to say anything about that,” Keselowski said on pit road post-race. “I can tell you that every car I saw had some body modifications on it after pit stops out there today. I don’t know if ours was more egregious or even if we had one. That is for the team guys to really answer. Of course it is frustrating. You don’t want to have to come from the back.”

Officials ordered Keselowski’s crew to take extra time on pit road to fix the car’s side sheet metal. After a spirited debate with Penske crewmembers and the NASCAR official in the pit box, Keselowski returned to the race in 38th place. An additional pass-through penalty on the ensuing green flag put the No. 2 team even further back.

Paul Wolfe, Keselowski’s crew chief, said that after their initial protest of the ruling, video replays of the jackman throwing a shoulder block into the side panel were conclusive.

“That’s been clear to our guys from earlier in the year that we can’t do that. It was a mistake on his part for getting into it,” Wolfe told NASCAR.com. “Everyone builds their cars anymore aero-wise to be real flexible when air is on them to obviously get all they can downforce-wise, so it doesn’t take much if someone gets into them sometimes to bend it or crease it. Once I saw our footage and our pit crew coach went through it, there’s nothing to argue. He did get into it.

“At the end of the day, we know that can’t happen. That’s on our part and we’ve got to fix that moving forward.”

While Keselowski was mired well back in the pack, Logano was having his own issues nearer to the front during the third of many frenzied restarts in the 160-lap event. Logano’s No. 22 started behind Newman’s No. 31 Chevrolet and nudged into his rear bumper, taking the spot by the time the fanned-out field barreled into Turn 1 on Lap 27. Once there, Newman signaled his displeasure with a handful of raps on Logano’s back bumper, repeated contact that moved the No. 22 out of the groove and caused significant damage to the left-rear fender.

With the car’s aerodynamics compromised, Logano slipped back. Only after considerable patching was the No. 22 able to move back into contention.

“I get it. I misjudged it trying to cross him over to the bottom and caught his bumper and about crashed him,” Logano told NASCAR.com regarding the brush with Newman. “That was my fault. Obviously, he’s pissed about it. I can’t say I blame him, so he got me back. I’d say the score’s equal. I’ll talk to him.”

From there, both Team Penske drivers steadily climbed back up the running order, picking up spots on restarts and deftly playing the game of fuel strategy. Keselowski’s strength over the longer haul helped him during the 33-lap green-flag run to the checkered flag.

Both Penske Fords had just enough fuel to get to the end, but not enough oomph to overcome race winner Kurt Busch at the finish. Still, Wolfe was pleased with the effort that earned both Team Penske drivers top-fives for the first time since Las Vegas in March.

“It’s not the first time we’ve been able to come back for a good finish from something that’s happened early in the race,” Wolfe said. “I think it just shows I feel good about where our team is right now. We always can use more speed, but we had a car that was capable of winning today if we would’ve had the track position there at the end.”

Said Keselowski: “Almost got back to the front, just came up a little short. A lot of great effort for our team. We needed a tiny bit more left. I could have used a 500-mile race but that might not be the most popular opinion in the garage but it is for me today.”