MADISON, Ill. — Austin Cindric emerged as the surprise winner of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race when fellow Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney ran out of gas while leading on the final lap at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion, appeared to be on his way to his first win of the season after fighting off a challenge from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, who had his own car trouble in the closing laps at the track in suburban St. Louis.
Cindric, who had pitted just one lap after Blaney, took advantage of the situation and notched the second win of his Cup Series career The other came in the 2022 Daytona 500, the opener to his first full season on the top-tier circuit.
“It was like my first time all over again,” Cindric said. “It’s been so long. Even just standing up on the roof of my car, I about fell over in victory lane.”
Cindric’s victory was also another sign of progress for Ford and the first year of Cup Series competition for its Mustang Dark Horse, which was shut out of victory lane in the first 12 points races of the season.
Although the other two manufacturers in the series are still far ahead — Chevrolet has seven wins and Toyota six — a Ford driver won for the third time in four weeks, with Cindric’s No. 2 taking the checkered flag after RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski won on May 12 at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway and Penske’s Joey Logano won on May 19 in the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Carolina’s North Wilkesboro Speedway, which does not count toward the season standings.
Denny Hamlin drove the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 6 Toyota to a runner-up showing Sunday, his sixth straight top-five finish, while Keselowski was third, followed by Tyler Reddick in a 23XI Racing Toyota and then Logano. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon was sixth, the best finish for a Chevy driver.
Cindric said he didn’t find out until he reached victory lane that Blaney had run out of gas — or that it might have been a problem for him.
“Probably the two best cars at the end of that race both had an issue, and the third-place car wins the race. That’s the way I see it,” Cindric said. “I mean, it’s not like I went out there and I took the lead away, but we were in position, and this is one of our best-executed races so far this year with probably our best speed.”
The three Penske cars — Cindric, Blaney and Logano — did not pit in the break between the second and third stages, and that put them in position to go for the organization’s first Cup Series points win of the year. Logano’s All-Star victory was worth $1 million, but it didn’t help his bid to make the 16-driver field for the playoffs later this season.
“It’s been miserable to be in our shop here lately. We expect to win,” said Logano, a two-time Cup Series champion who entered the race 17th in points. “We got used to winning, and when you’re fighting for 20th, it’s quite the kick in the you-know-what.”
AP photo by Jeff Roberson / Austin Cindric cruises down pit lane followed by fellow Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill.Bell, the winner of last week’s rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600, had the dominant car for much of the day, leading 80 of the 240 laps.
He and Blaney dueled for the lead for several laps before Bell — just after finally squeezing ahead of Blaney briefly — let up and reported mechanical trouble to his crew. Bell wound up seventh, getting a push by teammate Martin Truex Jr. — who wasn’t on the lead lap — on the straightaways in the final laps.
“I have no idea what happened — some sort of motor issue — and I’m surprised that it made it to the end,” Bell said. “So glad that we were able to salvage something out of it. But you don’t get race cars like that very often. And whenever you do, you need to take advantage of them.
Blaney had to settle for 24th, coasting around as the last finisher on the lead lap.
“Just one lap short,” Blaney said. “Really happy with our showing today, just I don’t know what I’ve got to do to get some luck on our side.”
Cindric’s crew chief, Brian Wilson, said the Penske organization coordinated during the week on the decision to keep all three cars out at the start of the third and final stage of Sunday’s race, but they didn’t share strategy on the final pit stop as they were competing for the win.
“I would have preferred to pit the same lap as him,” Wilson said of Blaney. “They did a great job of disguising that.”
Michael McDowell started in pole position and led the first 40 laps in his Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford before Bell maneuvered his way inside to take the lead for the first time.
Rookie driver Carson Hovecar finished a career-best eighth for Spire Motorsports — where his teammates next season will include McDowell, whose impending move to that Chevy team was announced last month — with Justin Haley ninth in a Rick Ware Racing Ford and 2021 Cup Series champ Kyle Larson 10th in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Larson and two-time Cup Series champ Kyle Busch were battling side by side for seventh on the final lap of the second stage when they got together in an incident that took Busch’s RCR No. 10 Chevy out.
After the two rubbed on the front stretch, Larson tried to dive inside Busch going into the first turn, but he got loose in the process. Larson’s car slid up the track and forced Busch into the wall. Busch’s race was over — he wound up 35th, ahead of only Josh Berry, who had crashed earlier — but Larson was able to pit and return to the track in 29th place.
“Trying to race for a playoff spot and, you know, gradually falling there a little bit,” said Busch, who was the runner-up in the track’s inaugural Cup Series race in 2022 before winning last year. “He got loose and wiped us out.”
On their radio communications, Larson and his spotter accused Busch of causing the crash by giving him no room on the inside.
Next Sunday, the Cup Series makes a stop at Sonoma Raceway, the permanent road course in California’s wine country.