Despite an exceptional start to the season, Team Penske hit a figurative road block on Sunday in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
During the course of the 501-mile race, all three Penske Ford Fusions ended up on pit road with their hoods up.
Brad Keselowski was the first to falter, on Lap 90, when he took the two-times race-winning No. 2 behind the wall.
"Something broke out of nowhere," Keselowski said. "We weren’t going very fast or anything and something in the back of the car broke and it won’t go."
He returned to the track and used the remainder of the race to get track time and accumulate points.
Meanwhile, reigning champion Joey Logano led eight laps early in the race but saw his chances diminishes when his hood began to buckle. He pitted to address the issue on Lap 172 while pit road was still closed. He lost a lap and fell to 20th when the race restarted.
"Something came apart in the bracing underneath the hood, I believe, and then the hood started flaring all over the place," Logano said. "The hood was gonna blow off the car if we didn’t get a caution, so we were able to fix it but went down a lap and there weren’t enough cautions to ever get the lucky dog.
"We won a stage. I was proud of the speed that was in the car. Our car was capable of winning the race."
Instead, he finished 17th.
Then came problems for Ryan Blaney, who led 45 laps before an overheating problem forced him to finish 37th.
"A part broke off and leaked all the water out, so that’s the way it goes," said Blaney. "It just seems that’s the way this season is going. We’ve had a shot to win pretty much every race and something happens.
"That’s getting old, but the car is fast. That’s the bright side, but I’m kind of tired of looking at the bright side. I want to actually start finishing where we should. It’s just one of those days."
Keselowski had won two races and entered the race fifth in the standings. He left in sixth. Logano won at Las Vegas and was fourth in the standings. He remains there after Texas. Blaney was coming off three straight top-5 finishes.
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