Technical alliances are NASCAR’s open secret. Smaller teams lean on the big players to survive, using their cars, tech, and brainpower just to stay in the fight and that’s the case with Wood Brothers Racing and Team Penske. However, when the Wood Brothers had only two top-five finishes in three years, only a few made the connection between the two teams. After all, Penske won the championship in all three of those seasons while Wood Brothers’ No. 21 was almost noncompetitive.

But here’s the issue: The No.21 car, for years, was made and assembled next to Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney’s cars—Cars that were capable of leading laps and winning. In that case, why weren’t the Wood Brothers able to win? Well, in August 2024, team president Jon Wood revealed there was “absolutely nothing” preventing them from grabbing a win. “There’s no reason we can’t run as good as those other three cars.” And it looks like he was right!

On Sunday, Josh Berry not only celebrated his first NASCAR Cup Series win but also took the Wood Brothers to victory lane at a 1.5-mile track for the first time since 1993. Interestingly, it was their second top-five finish in several weeks after their driver ended up in the fourth position, and with their recent success, it suddenly looks like it is stylish to link Penske and the Wood Brothers. And this is something Denny Hamlin is guilty of doing as well.

Denny Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast: “Wood Brothers own the Charter but I don’t know that the employees like if you ever see them at the racetrack they’re all Penske employees people that we know that are Penske employees. But we’re all guilty at times of when things typically have been bad for the 21 car we just say ‘It’s Penske’s development team they’re only gonna be but so good’… ‘They’re just priming people for their house cars’… ‘It’s a deal that they cut with the Wood brothers to run that car out of their shop and you know help them out’. I am sure they got some sort of a financial deal worked out.”

Denny Hamlin came clean, “But when things are good, we’re definitely quick to give Penske the credit, right? … I’m guilty of thinking that as well a kind of wondering and scratching your head yeah but if it’s even if it’s you know, just a straight a– development team of Penske, which I don’t know to be true. How could they be so far off for so many years, like way off of, you know, the worst Penske car, whoever that is, right, on any given weekend? And now it looks like it’s just us, it’s just one of the boys. It’s just one of the cars that come out of that shop that’s just like the 2 and the 12 and the 22, and it’s got the speed that they’ve got.”

Let’s go back in time. Since 2015, the Wood Brothers and Penske have been partners. WBR owns the charter, but the car comes from Penske’s shop. It’s mostly Penske people working on it—Penske crew, Penske tech, Penske everything. We’ve seen drivers like Ryan Blaney use the No. 21 to good effect, winning at Pocono in 2017 before moving to Penske’s No. 12. After that, it’s been tough.

Paul Menard, Matt DiBenedetto, and Harrison Burton, all drove it, but it rarely stood out. Burton won at Daytona last year, but that was more about timing than speed. In most races, it couldn’t touch Penske’s top cars and many even thought it was just a test car for Penske’s real stars. Then came Berry. Josh Berry has been solid as he’s won in the Xfinity Series under Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s mentorship. Another theory that comes to mind is that maybe Penske might’ve changed something. They put Miles Stanley, a former Penske engineer who’s helped win titles, as crew chief. That’s a big deal. Maybe they’re giving the No. 21 more help now, treating it like a real Penske car instead of an experiment.

And Hamlin has already seen the changes. He stated, “I noticed it in practice in Phoenix. Wow, the #21 car is good.”

We’re not sure yet about Josh Berry’s sudden turnaround. No one is. But when it’s bad, people say Penske doesn’t care about it. When good, we say it’s all Penske, and this is something that has led to frustration. On Sunday, Jon Wood addressed this perception and stated, “That’s a frustrating part. These are our guys who are doing this. We sat in a room and debated who our next driver would be for 2025. It’s Josh Berry. Those are decisions that we made collectively. It’s our race team and our decision.”

Top Comment by Don Mc

why is this important in light of NASCAR other practices as well as other teams?

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Either way, we have to keep an eye on this because this turnaround is big and a lot of questions need to be answered. However, Hamlin speaking about WBR and Penske also reminds us about how he is a co-owner of 23XI Racing, which secured a championship 4 appearance in 2024, thanks to the team Hamlin drives for, Joe Gibbs Racing. However, these alliances can also keep a team in the dark, stuck as a shadow to the powerhouse they’re tied to. Regardless, Hamlin’s own team recently made big moves in Vegas.

Denny Hamlin leaves Vegas with a lot of money and possibly a new sponsor!

Denny Hamlin’s weekend in Vegas was a total whirlwind with extreme highs and some real lows. Friday night, he was at the slots, just messing around, and boom, he nailed a $126,150 jackpot. He was leaping out of his seat, hollering, totally floored. Then Saturday, he was back at it, raking in another $85,825, pushing him over $200,000, as he posted on Instagram with a wry smile. However, come Sunday, Hamlin’s emotions took a 180-degree turn.

At Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he was pushing his No. 11 Toyota hard until a pit road speeding penalty knocked him to the back. That one hurt. He battled back but landed in 25. After all that casino luck, you’d hope for a better finish. Still, he’s sitting 12th in the Cup standings, so he has not slipped. However, off the track, it’s been brutal for most of the season, until JGR recently showed a sliver of hope.

FedEx, his sponsor for 19 years since 2005, pulled out after backing 13 races in 2024. Then Mavis Tires and Brakes, who jumped in for eight races last year, bailed too. That’s two big hits. Hamlin has been real about it—at the 2025 Cook Out Clash, he said, “Is it concerning from my end? Maybe a little bit, but it’s probably more concerning from JGR’s standpoint.” You can hear the worry in his voice, and it’s tough not to feel for him. But here’s some hope:

Joe Gibbs Racing might have a lifeline. Word from Adam Stern at Sports Business Journal is that Progressive Insurance could step in as a primary sponsor for 2025. It’s not locked yet, but JGR’s in the running. Progressive hasn’t backed a car since Ryan Newman’s two races in 2020, so this could be big. Alongside them, JGR lined up National Debt Relief, King’s Hawaiian, and AMPM to join returning sponsors SportClips and Yahoo. Hamlin has competed in NASCAR for 21 years, and he is still grinding. It looks like his journey at JGR isn’t coming to an end just yet. What do you think?