Team Penske president: We will eventually have to field four cars

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Team Penske enters the final elimination race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with two drivers — 2012 champion Brad Keselowski and series wins leader Joey Logano — attempting to vault into the championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

But for the organization to make the next progression longer-term, president Tim Cindric said, it will eventually have to field four teams, like powers Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. Until then, he said, the organization will not be regarded as an “elite team.”

“I don’t think we’re looked at as that yet,” Cindric told USA TODAY Sports. “I mean, you look at the pedigree, and you look at the time, it’s only been since Joey arrived (in 2013) that we’ve had two cars consistently contending. I think you could say maybe there was a year with Brad and Kurt (Busch, in 2011) but before that, if you look at the 90s and you look at the 2000s time period, we were hit and miss.

“I don’t think that we got to the point where we were a consistent contender with multiple cars, and I think we’re almost over that hump. But I don’t think we’re viewed yet as an elite team within NASCAR because we only run two cars.”

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Sponsorship shortfalls this summer quashed a plan to field a full-time program beginning in 2016 for Ryan Blaney, Cindric said. The 21-year-old is running partial national touring campaigns this season, with the Wood Brothers in Cup, for Penske in Xfinity, where he has won twice, and for Keselowski’s trucks team, where he has one victory.

“There’s a certain tolerance that you have,” Cindric said of sponsor money, “but you can’t close the gap so far.

“For ‘17 it’s a definite goal of ours to get ourselves back up to three and longer-term we want to be a four-car team.”

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Penske’s forays into expansion have been fitful. It fielded three full-time programs in three seasons, as an organization winning two total races each season from 2008-2010. NASCAR currently limits to four the number of full-time Sprint Cup cars an organization can race. Teams capable of funding such operations benefit from economies of scale in building cars and information-gathering and –sharing. Of the three teams with the maximum, JGR qualified all four drivers for the 16-person Chase this season, HMS three and Stewart-Haas Racing two.

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“I think four is the right business model, but we felt like we had to go to two to get ourselves focused,” Cindric said. “When you have two successful cars or one successful car and others that aren’t successful, you spend as much time or more time on the car that is not successful. And we felt like we needed to take a step back and get ourselves to a point where we could simplify things.

“For sure we want to get back to three and eventually four. I do think four is easier to manage than three just because you typically have a better balance. I do think there is some truth to three’s a crowd and it’s harder to manage the three.”

Follow James on Twitter @brantjames

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