(photo credit Leon Hammack)

It happens every fall—in NASCAR’s Next Gen era, at least.

As reliably as jack-o’-lanterns populate the front porches of America with Halloween approaching, the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs take a turn toward a certain Ford team when the end of summer nears.

Ever since the Next Gen race car debuted in the series in 2022, Team Penske drivers—specifically Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney—have blossomed during the postseason.

Logano won the second title of his career in 2022 and added a third last year, outrunning Blaney in the Championship 4 event at Phoenix Raceway.

Blaney claimed the championship in 2023, giving team owner Roger Penske a monopoly on Next Gen-era titles.

After Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, drivers outside the Team Penske stable might well be thinking “What? Not again!”

With Blaney’s victory in the final regular-season race, the Ford contingent awoke from an 11-week slumber dating to Blaney’s win at Nashville Superspeedway on June 1.

There’s a discernible pattern here. In each of the last three seasons, Team Penske drivers have emerged from summer doldrums to prevail in NASCAR’s postseason. The difference this year is that Blaney, in particular, has shown consistent speed throughout the year—without the victories to show for it.

Blaney entered Saturday’s Daytona race with a string of five straight top-10 finishes. Despite suffering seven DNFs (did not finish) in the first 20 races, he leap-frogged Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson to secure a second-place finish in the regular season and claim the 10 Playoff points that accompany the spot.

“To get to second in regular-season points after the year we’ve had with seven DNFs, I think it just shows how good we’ve been,” Blaney said after the race. “And the good thing about the last six weeks, I feel like we’ve been finishing where we’ve been running and deserve to finish. Nothing foolish has happened. We’ve been able to have solid weeks and just kind of put things together.

“I’ve been really happy with the effort of us all year, that’s for sure. I think these guys (Blaney’s crew) are even better than they were when we won the championship, better than what we were last year. They just keep maturing, and their confidence is high. Hopefully, we can make another run and start off next week. We’ll see.”

The Playoffs open with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Aug. 31 (6 p.m. on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The second race in the opening round takes place at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway near St. Louis, a new addition to the Playoffs gift-wrapped for Team Penske.

Logano won the inaugural Cup race at WWT Raceway in 2022. A year later, in Kyle Busch’s most recent victory in the series, Logano ran third, and Blaney finished sixth after leading 83 laps.

Last year, Team Penske driver Austin Cindric triumphed at the 1.25-mile track after Blaney ran out of fuel while leading with two laps left. Logano came home fifth for his third top five at the speedway in as many races.

The only Fords in the Playoffs this year are those of Blaney, Logano, Cindric and Josh Berry in the No. 21 Mustang of Team Penske affiliate Wood Brothers Racing.

There also was a tinge of irony in Blaney’s win at Daytona. His victory kept Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver Alex Bowman in the Playoffs on points. Last year, it was Bowman’s disqualification in the Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte ROVAL that kept Logano in the postseason and preserved his championship run.

After Saturday’s race, Bowman asserted that he owed Blaney “seven million beers.”

“Oh, I’ll take five million,” Blaney quipped during his post-race press conference. “I’ll save him some money… I do need a refill if he’s still here. I’ll start with one.”

The real question, though, is whether any other driver can prevent Blaney or one of his teammates from toasting with champagne after the checkered flag in the Nov. 3 Championship 4 Race at Phoenix.

TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!