How Team Penske Is Winning the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase with Only 2 Cars

Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are having twice the fun in the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup with half of the teammates of at least one other top organization participating in NASCAR's playoffs.

Heading into this Sunday's race at Dover International Speedway, Keselowski and Logano are the only drivers definitely locked into the next round of this Chase under the new elimination format—by virtue of winning the first two Chase races. Keselowski took the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway, and Logano followed that up by winning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last week.

So how is Team Penske winning the Chase so far with only two cars in the organization's Sprint Cup stable?

The answers to that question aren't as difficult to come by as one might think, even though they are somewhat complex. While other top organizations are sharing data and resources, even personnel, among up to four teams, Keselowski and Logano have only each other and their much smaller group of teammates. They also have excellent crew chiefs in Paul Wolfe for Keselowski and Todd Gordon for Logano, as well as a veritable army of engineers and great management minds behind them.

Hendrick Motorsports, on the other hand, has four teams. And although HMS has excellent driver-crew chief pairings for every one of them—Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus; Jeff Gordon and Alan Gustafson; Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte; and Kasey Kahne and Kenny Francis—there are simply too many teams and too many people to have quite as tight-knit of an overall group as Penske.

That isn't to say this thing is over. All four Hendrick teams qualified for the Chase, and when it's all said and done, one or more of these teams likely will be involved with both of the Team Penske cars in a winner-take-all season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway among the last four Chase drivers left under the new format.

But right now, with eight races left in the season, Hendrick is running a poor second—or first loser—to the Penske gang, along with the Stewart-Haas Racing team of Kevin Harvick that essentially is a satellite Hendrick team.

The other top teams in the Sprint Cup garage—Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Childress Racing—are fielding three teams each this year and currently have neither the speed nor the chemistry to remain factors in this Chase much longer. 

So in one sense, Penske is winning by keeping it simple. When RFR's Carl Edwards came available as a free agent earlier this year, owner Roger Penske dismissed rumors that Edwards might be headed to his organization as driver of a third team, telling NASCAR.com "it doesn't make sense."

Everything else Penske has done in recent years suddenly does make sense.

There were those who understandably questioned the decision to switch manufacturers from Dodge to Ford even as Keselowski was still pursuing the championship he would win in 2012. But after a year of adjustment, it's looking like a brilliant move now, as Penske arguably has replaced Roush Fenway as Ford's flagship NASCAR operation.

Then you have to go back to how Penske took a chance on Keselowski and plucked him from under owner Rick Hendrick's nose in 2010, and then gave Keselowski a chance not only to drive for him, but also to have a say in important matters, like whether to pursue Logano two years later.

Now the oldest owner in the Sprint Cup garage has two of the hottest, young drivers in the sport working for him and helping each other every step of the way.

Debating the matter on FoxSports.com, writers Jay Pennell and Jared Turner recently explained it perfectly.

brightcove.com/?flashVars='videoId=3798100182001

"The chemistry between driver and crew chief, as well as between drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, has elevated everyone and everything in this organization, and allowed them to work so well together and beat the competition," Pennell wrote.

Turner added: "Penske is laser-focused on two cars and making them as fast as possible, while other organizations with more cars are spread more thin. On that chemistry thing that Jay mentioned, it's a lot easier to have chemistry between two teams than four. That's just common sense."

Prior to this season, Team Penske also expanded a relationship begun late last season with Leavine Family Racing and driver Michael McDowell in a smart move seemingly made to at least somewhat counter all of the data being shared between other megateams. And, of course, as fellow Ford brethren, Penske and Roush Fenway also share limited information—which makes it all the more intriguing that RFR is running so badly this season with three teams while Penske is running away from the field with only two.

That probably has more to do with infrastructure and engineers added to and subtracted from both organizations over the past five or six years than it does anything else.

In the end, it all adds up to one thing—the only one that really matters. The two Penske cars are more consistently fast on the track, no matter what shape or size it is, than any two cars from any other organization, no matter what time it is in a race.

Fox Sports analyst Jeff Hammond broke it down this way:

"

It's really total car control, and the good thing about it -- which we see each and every week -- is they not only have the speed at the beginning of a run, but are able to sustain that speed pretty much throughout the entire run. This is where they really have been able to take it to the competition.

The Penske cars' speed in the latter part of a run is so impressive, and it allows them at times to build an even bigger lead. That then allows them to dictate terms and strategies to the other teams, which are forced to adapt to try and make up ground on the No. 2 of Brad Keselowski and the No. 22 of Joey Logano.

It really is amazing that Penske has been able to do this, not only all year, but right now when it counts the most and when everything is on the line for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

"

That's why Keselowski and Logano are having twice as much fun as everyone else right now. And why the competition is close to panicking, because time is running out—with their only real saving grace being that, under the new Chase elimination format, the best Team Penske can do is lock down half of the Championship 4 that will race for the title at Homestead.

Right now, that's looking like about the only drawback Penske has to consider about their two-team setup going forward.

Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.

Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report as well as covering NASCAR for FoxSports.com as a writer/editor. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.